Introduction

This article presents a brief examination of the general process and outcomes of basic education reform. We first summarize economic reform and basic education reform, in particular their significant similarities and differences in terms of process and results. We then explain the success of basic education reform using three perspectives, namely, 1) the three matters/solutions, 2) contingency theory, and 3) the 3-C framework. Next, we analyze the price that China has paid for the success of education reform. Finally, we conclude that what the Chinese experience can offer to other developing countries is just what other countries have offered to China: erosion of traditions and westernization of schooling.

Economic Reform

However, the economic reform was not strategically planned. In other words, it was initiated without a strategy. Yet, "a limited number of crucial government decisions and commitments were required in order to allow reform to develop. In certain periods, policymakers acted as if they had a commitment to a specific reform strategy" (Naughton, 1995, p. 7). In the process of the reform as a whole, "what is most striking is the succession of incremental, steadily accumulating measures of economic reform that have gradually transformed the economy in a fundamental way" (Naughton, 1995, p. 20).

No doubt, the two decades of economic reform resulted in increasing income inequality as documented in the rich research literature studying the reform. Yet, the growth of an income gap is not peculiar to China. It is a worldwide phenomenon observed in both developed countries such as the U.S. and all transitional countries in recent decades. Furthermore, in the case of China, the extent of income inequality and its underlying causes are still very far from clear (Bramall, 2001). In terms of most important indicators, the Chinese economic reform has been a success (Maddison, 1998; Naughton, 1995).

Basic Education Reform

Key schools were developed to achieve two goals. The first was to produce maximum educational returns in the shortest time, particularly to produce more qualified graduates for higher-level institutions in order to meet the immediate growing manpower demands. The second was to serve as a teaching and learning model for regular schools, so as to improve the overall quality of the whole basic education sector (Rosen, 1985, 1987). If the former goal has been partly realized by selectively promoting students to higher level institutions, particularly a very small percentage of students to colleges and universities, the second too ambitious goal has never been realized. In consequence, the diploma disease that hit other developing countries and spread in Chinese education reform in the 1960s (Unger, 1980) has resurfaced during the reform period under study here (Unger, 1980; Pepper, 1987, 1990, 1996, 1997).

In the 1990s, the college enrollment rate was steadily rising (Wang, 2000). Since the second half of 1990s, the exam-oriented schooling associated with the dual track system was considered too counterproductive to reform objectives, particularly universalization of 9-year schooling. The central educational authorities decided to de-emphasize the elite track. Education policy makers explicitly required that all primary and secondary schools should admit students in their neighborhoods and communities. In 1996, Li Lanqing, Vice Premier in charge of education, declared: "We must, from now on, no longer promote key middle schools or continue contributing all of our human, physical, and financial resources and all of our subsidies and donations into such schools" (Li, 1997). Merging the educational dual tracks, however, turned out to be a far more difficult and lengthy enterprise for a variety of political, socioeconomic, and educational reasons. The reintegration of the two tracks has yet to be completed.

Nevertheless, to a great extent, the assessment of economic reform discussed earlier also applies to education reform, particularly basic education reform. There was no clear strategy but instead feverish negation of Maoist popular education at the outset of schooling reform. The compulsory education law enacted in 1986 served more to declare the importance of universal education than to enforce the 9-year compulsory schooling at the initial stage. The objective of educational finance reform (notably the national promotion and standardization of education surcharges in the early 1990s following the termination of the state's provision of financial resources to basic education) was for the central government to fend for itself in the larger finance reform (Wong, 1997). The educational practices and realities for both women and national minorities have been oftentimes contradictory with the declared policies and priorities (Rosen, 1992, 1995).

Notwithstanding, the basic education system has experienced significant transformation in the two decades of reform. First and foremost, the reform goals of 9-year compulsory schooling and literacy have been largely realized. Second, resource mobilization has resulted in relatively adequate financial resources for 9-year compulsory schooling. Lastly, the educational landscape of diversity beyond the Ministry of Education (MOE) system has taken shape, particularly along with the significant expansion of private schools and NGO-sponsored Hope Schools and the indispensable contribution of Maoist minban ("people-managed," or community-supported) teachers in rural areas. Admittedly, governmental decisions were crucial in transforming the basic education system in a fundamental way. These decisions included moves to decentralize educational governance, universalize 9-year schooling and improve literacy, diversify educational financing, and enforce education taxation by garnering resources from communities and households. In the final analysis, China's basic education reform has been, in short, a success.

Explaining Success

Indeed, significant progress in national education attainment and schooling effectiveness has been achieved in China in terms of what Levin and Lockheed (1993) called three matters. The relative efficiency of education can result from, first, growing participation (enrollment, completion, and achievement), second, more effectiveness (less dropout and repetition, and positive learning result), and third, increasing resources (more expenditures per student, annual recurrent public educational expenditures, qualified teachers, facilities, textbooks, and others) (Levin and Lockheed, 1993, pp. 1-19). Generally, the three matters have been, to a great extent, well addressed in China in the reform era, especially in the late 1990s (MOE Department of Planning and Development, 1998). In a certain sense, Levin and Lockheed's (1993) prescription of "three solutions" for creating effective schooling in developing countries, namely, "basic inputs," "facilitating conditions," and the "will to act" of government and communities (p. 13), have been made all available in the Chinese case of basic education (Ahmed et al., 1991; Lewin, et al., 1994; Tsang, 1996).

In the past two decades, high-profile publicity campaigns for reform and expansion of basic education repeatedly swept the whole nation. The annual evaluation of governmental officials at each administrative level included schooling effectiveness as an important performance indicator. The central educational authorities issued general standards and requirements for primary and secondary education in terms of school building, classrooms, textbooks, teaching aids, playgrounds, toilets, drinking water, and others. Due to regional differences in terms of resources, there are gaps between urban and rural schools, between schools in developed areas and underdeveloped areas, and between schools in the Han majority areas and schools in minority areas. However, in the poorest school communities, the Ministry of Education minimum requirements were "yiwu liangyou" (one "have-not" and two "haves"). Namely, no school should have dangerous school buildings or facilities; every school must have classroom buildings and every student must have a desk and stool in the classroom (Cheng, 1993, pp. 46-62; West, 1997, pp. 214-246). Because culturally students are entitled to textbooks and, administratively, textbooks have always been centralized and guaranteed even for the poorest schools, the "have" of textbooks is not specified in the minimum requirements (Cheng, 1993, pp. 46-62). The "ba peitao" (eight supplements) have also been advocated in the Ministry of Education guidelines. Namely, every primary or secondary school must be supplemented or outfitted with a school gate for safety, a garden, necessary toilets, a cultural (recreation) room, a laboratory, a library, and a sports ground. Except for the schools in poorest rural areas, which may not have a laboratory or library, most schools have met the most important requirements. In addition, "santong" (three connections) have to be realized. Namely, water, electricity, and road linkups to every school must be guaranteed. Except for a few schools in locations with extremely adverse conditions that preclude electricity connections most schools have realized the three connections (West, 1997, pp. 214-246).

Second, the story of success can also be explained by using contingency theory, which partly holds that there is no single best decision-making approach (Tarter & Hoy, 1998). The difficulties of implementing education reform in developing countries range from complexity of reform proposals, unpredictability of education reforms, inappropriate management strategies, a failure to focus on school level changes, and a failure to assess the capacity of organizations to manage innovation (Rondinelli et al., 1990, pp. 11-15). These difficulties need to be addressed by using the contingency approach in the planning and implementation of education reforms. The application of contingency theory overcomes the weaknesses of conventional planning and recognizes the central position of people. It takes unstable and uncertain external environments into consideration by targeting both routine and innovative tasks. Equally important, it tolerates ambiguity and risk (Rondinelli et al., 1990).

The policy decision making process of Chinese education reform is strongly impacted by external environments and factors. The controversial dual-track scheme that involves every school and every student, intends to address both routine and innovative tasks of education. More often than not the education reform legislation and policies are ambiguous. The policy process, particularly the implementation of governance decentralization and financing diversification, has been exploitative of households and communities and, sometimes, misguided. However, despite groping for stones to cross the river, both policy makers and implementers are fully aware of the minimum goals that they have to reach: to universalize compulsory basic education and to increase literacy. Peasants, rural communities, grassroots organizations, and local governments have played a pivotal role in adopting policies, implementing programs, and providing resources to reach the fundamental targets of compulsory schooling.

"Indeed, the Chinese reform kept evolving in ways that policymakers didn't anticipate, and they had to scramble to catch up with the changes they had unleashed" (Naughton, 1995, p. 23). In the process of reform, each step taken depended on the previous step. From the perspective of contingency theory, "since by significant resilience as well, such an approach might be admired as the strategy of not having a strategy, or as we might say, of 'muddling through'" (Naughton, 1995, p. 7).

We choose to term the continuous and seemingly endless but evolving reform process following the first initiated educational change and reform as "education re-reform." Education re-reform is a unique phenomenon in the Chinese education sector. In Chinese economic development, "reform proceeds by a series of feedback loops—reform begets further reform" (Naughton, 1995, p. 320). In education, decentralization and de-politicization featured with the reform in the 1980s were ignited, simply put, to redress hyper-politicization in the Maoist era. The reform begat changes with growing tendency of centralization or re-centralization in the 1990s. The reform of financing diversification was first intended to redress over-centralization in the early 1970s. The diversification and resource mobilization also begat reform of more central and upper level interventions in the late 1990s. China's education reform could not proceed fruitfully without a number of timely state decisions and interventions. The continuous education re-reform may result in, what Lampton (1987) calls, incongruencies between policy intentions and outcomes (p. 8). In fact, it has done so in many aspects. Nonetheless, "the dynamics of the process create opportunities for pro-reform leaders to push the reform forward" (Naughton, 1995, p. 320). Also from the perspective of contingency theory, the dynamics of seemingly irregular and repeated re-reforms are reshaping the Chinese education system to a new stage of development, with numerous mistakes and failures of course, but with more exciting stories of success often unheard in other comparable developing countries.

Lastly, the simplistic, but interesting 3-C (consistency, connectedness, and culture fit) frame, which some used to evaluate education reform in Hong Kong (Dowson et al., 2000), may also be used to explain the complicated case of educational development in China's mainland. According to Dowson et al. (2000), consistency refers to how the thrust of the reforms and reform components are interpreted. That is: are the reforms consistent, or do they confuse educators through proposing apparently contradictory purposes? Connectedness refers to whether reform components are linked in terms of what they are trying to achieve and how they are achieved. Is the huge array of quality reforms coherently connected to each other? Cultural fit refers to whether the reforms and reform components are appropriate given the traditional culture and the context of educational institutions. Are the thrusts of the reforms culturally appropriate?

The examination of the basic education reform in China's mainland has provided negative answers with significant evidence, particularly to questions about the first two indicators. For example, educational differentiation and segregation are very difficult to overcome and the misguided dual track system is hard to merge into an appropriate equitable educational system under the efficiency-oriented environments of the free market economy. Policy vagueness, inarticulation, and confusion are notoriously ubiquitous in the Chinese education system, in particular in the four domains of the policy process of formulation and consultation, adoption, implementation, and monitoring (NEPI, 1992, 1993) at the national and provincial levels. There are severe mismatches and contradictions between compulsory education policies and practices. Teachers in economically underdeveloped areas are offered low and late pay, but are urged by the state to play a greater role in improving school effectiveness and universalizing compulsory education.

However, basic education reforms also display major threads of consistency, connectedness, and cultural fit. In particular, the mobilization of resources, which is very important for successful expansion of basic education but more difficult to practice in many other developing countries, is fitting in with the traditional culture that emphasizes support to schooling. Ahmed et al. (1991) observed: "Policy formulation is clearly a central function, but the devolution of financial responsibility for basic education to the local level has led to considerable de facto flexibility in the application, adaptation and interpretation of policies" (p. 162). This flexibility is reflected in, for example, locally initiated extensive education surcharges and levies. The extensive, sometimes rampant, fees and surcharges have incremented significant financial burdens for communities and peasants in economically underdeveloped school communities. However, the practice of resource mobilization (Tsang, 1994, 1996) also results in a higher level of creativity, pragmatism, and productivity, ensuring the generally adequate financial resources available for almost every school. Compared with basic education development in other developing countries such as India (PROBE Team, 1999), one may argue that the Chinese basic education reforms evidence a greater degree of continuity and consistency of policies in the overall positively steered process and environments (Ahmed et al., 1991, pp. 162-174). In other words, the lack of consistency, connectedness, and cultural "fit" of basic education reforms does exist; but, it is not as significant as in other comparable developing countries.

The Price of Success: Erosion of Tradition

"Three diverse traditions came together in Chinese education during the 1950s, in an uncertain combination that has yet to be fully reconciled thirty years later. The tradition that the Chinese Communist Party inherited from the Republican era was itself an amalgam of modern Western-inspired learning grafted on an ancient Confucian base. The second tradition the Chinese Communists brought with them from their own recent experience as leaders of the rural Border Region governments in the 1930s and 1940s. The third tradition was introduced into China in the 1950s, when the new Communist government embarked on an ambitious attempt to learn from the Soviet Union. The influence of each of these three traditions can still be seen in Chinese education, their outlines now firmly etched in the public mind and in official discourse by the volatile combination they have produced." (p. 185)

The new combination of the transformed traditions has now resulted in no traditions, or more precisely, the imported traditions of the West and of America. Like students in other developing countries, school children in China are also "alienated from the past" (Rodriguez, p. 174). The cost of "losing the past" and losing identity is not negligible. People feel their education has put them in a societal black hole (Kazmi, 1989, pp. 171-177).

Conclusion

From the erosion and transformation of traditions, as well as from the growing inequalities and inequities in most developing countries, what the Chinese case can offer to other developing countries is exactly what other developing countries can teach China: for better or worse, the traditions are eroded in education reforms. The state becomes the fragile state (Fuller, 1990). Chinese schools, as well as other Third World schools, are built in the Western way.

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About the Authors

E-mail: chengzhi@princeton.edu

Chengzhi Wang did his doctorate work in educational policy studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He taught English education at a normal university in China and multicultural education at a teaching university in Illinois. He now works as an academic professional at the Princeton University.

Quanhua Zhou
College of Education, Room 321
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721-0069

E-mail: qzhou@u.arizona.edu

Quanhua Zhou is a doctoral student at the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. He earned a Master's degree in International Relations and worked in the administration of Peking University for several years. His research interests include higher education finance and educational policy.

General questions about appropriateness of topics or particular articles may be addressed to the Editor, Gene V Glass, glass@asu.edu or reach him at College of Education, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2411. The Commentary Editor is Casey D. Cobb: casey.cobb@unh.edu .