Poverty Vs. Education: 4-6 pg essay

Education and anti-poverty: Policy theory and strategy of poverty alleviation through education in China

Xue Eryong and Zhou Xiuping

the Faculty of Education, Beijing normal university, Beijing, P. r. china

ABSTRACT Countries around the world have adopted different policies to address the global issue of poverty, though their poverty line varies. China has achieved remarkable results in poverty alleviation through education. Aware that poverty eradication must rely on intellectual support, the country has shifted its anti-poverty theory and policy actions from a passive, one-off poverty reduction mode based on ‘blood transfusion’ to an active and sustainable mode aimed at improving the ‘blood making’ capacity of the poor population, namely the Chinese mode. Education is the fundamental way of such a mode. China has always focused on nine-year compulsory education in implementing anti-poverty policies; conducted classified and tiered efforts in education against poverty and made policies more targeted; adopted diverse policy instruments and shifted the focus from subsidy to educational capacity building; developed quantified poverty alleviation indexes to set standards for policy evaluation; and included education against poverty into the national anti-poverty strategic plan. China will further advance poverty alleviation through education, and form a unique and effective anti-poverty mode, so as to contribute to the building of a community of shared future for all humankind.

1. Research background

China’s anti-poverty efforts are an important part of global anti-poverty action, and key to the success in global poverty eradication. As of the end of 2016, poverty incidence in rural China was 4.5%, and there were more than 43 million poor people in the countryside. Report of Migrant Chinese develop- ment sponsored by National Health and Family Planning Commission of the P.R.C (2016) points that there are 247 million migrants and one of six Chinese is floating. The total number of rural children is 100 million, 35% are floating children and 65% are left-behind rural children. The former often is sit- uated the weak urban or suburban school and the latter have little chance of making success in their compulsory education stage as a result of lack of supervision of parents.1 From 1978 to 2015, China’s poor population decreased 710 million, or 92.8%, and rural poverty incidence fell 93 percentage points (Xi, 2017a, 2017b, p. 2). From 1981 to 2012, China contributed to 71.82% of the decrease in the world poor population, and its nearly unrivaled efforts and exceptional achievements in poverty alleviation propelled the drop in global poverty (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences & the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation & Development, 2016, p. 9). Internationally, the anti-poverty the- ory and policy actions have moved away from a passive, one-off poverty reduction mode based on

KEY WORDS anti-poverty; poverty alleviation through education; the chinese mode; educational policy; chinese public policy

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CONTACT Xue Eryong [email protected]

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY 2018, VOL. 50, NO. 12, 1101–1112 https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2018.1438889

‘blood transfusion’ to an active and sustainable mode aimed at improving the ‘blood making’ capacity of the poor population. Poverty eradication must rely on intellectual support, and education is a basic approach of the active poverty alleviation mode.

‘To lift a group of people out of poverty through education’ has been a key policy measure adopted by the Chinese government, and provided a path to improve the quality and skills of the poor popu- lation and promote the development of education in poverty-stricken areas. The central government has given the needy people access to free training once a year at thousands of the designated voca- tional schools. The number of students admitted to ordinary higher education institutions through the targeted enrollment program for poverty-stricken regions has increased from 10000 in 2012 to 63000 in 2016. From 2012 to 2015, a total of 183,000 students from 832 state-designated key counties for poverty alleviation were enrolled, and the number of students from poor rural areas admitted to key universities has increased above 10% annually since 2013.2

The provincial governments have formulated specific implementation plans for poverty alleviation through education in line with the central government policy. For example, Guizhou province provides special subsidies for students from registered poor households; Sichuan has carried out the ten-year action plan for educational development in ethnic areas, the ‘9+3’ free education program for Tibetan areas, and ‘one village, one kindergarten’ preschool education program, which has greatly increased the nine-year compulsory education consolidation rate and kindergarten enrollment rate; the nutrition improvement program has been implemented in 63 counties of Guangxi, benefiting approximately 1.6 million students in 8795 schools, of which nearly 90% provide students meals at their own canteens; Gansu has set up 939 kindergartens in administrative villages with a population of more than 2000 in 58 poverty-stricken counties. According to the poverty alleviation policy implementation survey covering contiguous destitute areas in 19 provinces, the degree of satisfaction about the educational policy is the highest among the eight categories of livelihood policies, with 37% of the respondents thinking educational policy ‘well implemented’.3

Poverty and anti-poverty are global issues. Despite the differences in policy thresholds and pol- icy systems, countries around the world have faced common policy issues and shared similar values in this regard. To coordinate efforts in poverty alleviation, the Chinese government established the State Council Leading Group for Economic Development of Poverty-stricken Regions in May 1985, and renamed it the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development in 1993. The province-centered poverty alleviation responsibility system featuring level-by-level control has been followed ever since. Over the past 30-plus years, the central government has rolled out three strategic plans for nationwide poverty alleviation work, including the National Poverty Alleviation Plan (1994– 2000), Outline for Poverty Reduction and Development of China’s Rural Areas (2001–2010), and Outline for Poverty Reduction and Development of China’s Rural Areas (2011–2020). In addition, the Resolutions of the State Council on Fighting Hard to Win the War against Poverty and the Poverty Alleviation Plan for the 13th Five-Year Plan Period, both released after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, also point out the direction of China’s future anti-poverty policies.

Lack of access to quality education deprives poor groups of necessary skills and cultural capital to get out of poverty, and to some extent results in intergenerational transmission of poverty. This research project sorts out the theoretical and practical relations between anti-poverty and poverty alleviation through education, clarifies the theoretical basis and policy principles of poverty alleviation through education based on structured poverty, culture of poverty and other theories and concludes that pov- erty alleviation through education plays a vital role in China’s anti-poverty strategy.

The methods of research are using policy analysis methods such as content analysis, behavior anal- ysis, shadow control and system analysis, comparing governmental action and orientation of poverty alleviation through education with anti-poverty through developing industry, connecting the policy text with the social and economic backgrounds, counting key words which are related on education in anti-poverty policy texts. Selecting three national poverty alleviation documents as key cases in the Chinese anti-poverty system, and on the basis of institutional analysis and case study, this article gives an overview of the theory and practice of China’s education for poverty alleviation initiative in the era

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of globalization, describes the relationship between poverty alleviation through education policy and educational reform, and maps out the Chinese mode and path of poverty alleviation through education, in the hope of providing inspirations for global anti-poverty action.

2. Theoretical perspective

Anti-poverty research dates back to the fifteenth–sixteenth century. Poverty measurement on a global scale has shifted from absolute poverty to relative poverty. The relative poverty line can be deter- mined through the ‘food basket’, policy definition and relative income approaches. However, due to the multiple dimensions and complexity of the poverty issue, it is difficult to describe poverty simply using economic standards such as income. International organizations including the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the World Bank have put forward the concept of ‘multidimen- sional poverty measurement’, and social indicators including education have been increasingly seen as important dimensions in measuring poverty (Li et al., 2005, pp. 39–46). The adult illiteracy rate is included in the Human Poverty Index introduced by the UNDP in 1997. The World Bank’s report in 2001 points out poverty not only means lack of materials, but also a low level of education and health care, the inability to express their own needs, and lack of influence (The World Bank, 2001). Because of the complexity and high cost of multidimensional poverty measurement, many countries including China are still using the poverty line approach. The poverty threshold in China is almost per capita net income of RMB3000 in 2016.

Education was not included in the poverty index at the beginning. But with the rise of the human capital theory, levels of education and health care, as part of human capital, have been taken into con- sideration by researchers. From the academic perspective, poverty alleviation through education has been gradually highlighted in the process when poverty research extends from the economic scope to legal, social and educational spheres. It reflects the advancement in world anti-poverty theory and practice, that is, poverty is not only manifested in basic living dilemmas due to low income, but also in backward concepts, lack of knowledge and skills and the resultant deprivation of opportunities and income increase space. Poverty is not only a deprivation of means but must be understood as multi- dimensional, a lot of researchers make great progress in theoretical models and evidences of poverty. Poverty is a contentious and complex construct, however, lack of key resources is at the core of most poverty registers worldwide. Poverty is the result of the poor behavioral characteristics and their own choices, and it occurs when some individuals are either unprepared or unable to participate in the market economy productively.4

The purpose of poverty alleviation through education is to, through improving the quality of the poor population, turn anti-poverty into the conscious action of poor people and transform them from passively receiving assistance to actively seeking opportunities to get out poverty (Lin, 1997, pp. 44–52). Poverty alleviation through education is ‘to improve the comprehensive quality of laborers, help poor people develop the ability to get out of poverty, and thus prevent intergenerational transmission of poverty (Zhong, 2016, pp. 22–24.).’ Poor education is an important cause of poverty, so are backward con- cepts and lack of knowledge and skills. Peters and Besley (2014) points that lack of learning opportunity made more children in crisis and in poverty in New Zealand. Education is the fundamental way to reduce and eliminate poverty in that it can improve the comprehensive quality of laborers, help poor people develop the ability to get out of poverty, and thus prevent intergenerational transmission of poverty (Wang, Feng, & Zhang, 2016, pp. 12–21). Getting out of poverty, first and foremost, requires shaking off poverty in concepts and the mind, and efforts in poverty alleviation through education should focus on improving the quality and skills of the poor population (Zeng, 2016, pp. 35–42). ‘Chinese scholars’ analysis of poverty in educational settings has something in common with international understanding, holding that lack of access to school education and lifelong learning aggravates poverty. Power deter- mines the educational system and the distribution and reproduction of cultural capital, and poor groups generally lack necessary cultural capital in market competition. The government should address social

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inequality caused by adjustments to policies on poverty alleviation through education. It is necessary and effective to develop education for poor people in order to improve their comprehensive quality.

Education against poverty is an important part of the world anti-poverty action. International expe- rience shows that education against poverty may bring high poverty reduction flexibility. According to a study of the World Bank, poverty incidence is greater than 16% if the bread earner in a household received less than 6 years of education; it decreases to 7% in the case of 6–9 years of education, and further to 2.5% in the case of 9–12 years of education; poverty is almost unlikely for a household with the laborer having received more than 12 years of education. In China, that means at least finishing high school. In 2010, 74% of the population of high-income countries had finished high school or above, and the rate was 72% in OECD countries about to leap over the middle-income trap; in China, the rate was just about 25%, though it has doubled to 50% in 2017. However, surveys found that 63% of children in rural China had never gone to high school.5 There are great gaps in access to education between urban and rural areas and between different groups; farmers, in particular, have always been the disadvantaged group. Among people born in the 1980s, 2% of those who have never received school education and 11% of those whose highest level of education is primary school come from the underclass; they remain at the bottom of society today, and chances are high for their next generation (Li, 2014, pp. 66–77). Data from National Bureau of Statistics of China, UNICEF&UNFPA (2017) shows that there are 271 million age 0–17 children, 19.7% of the total population of China in 2015. Inequality of education exits between urban and rural, different areas and the other aspects. To be concrete, rural children in the compulsory stage is worse than urban children, and children from poor rural area are the most disadvantaged during the fifteen years from 2000 to 2015 (See Figure 1). There are approximately 3.87 million rural children unfinished the compulsory education among 6.3 million age 6–17 young- ster in 2015. The proportion of rural children is more than 60% in the group of age 6–17 not-at-school children at the stage of high school.

A joint project team of the World Bank and the Development Research Center of the State Council points out that like other public sectors, the education sector is monopolistic or quasi monopolistic, and has low motivation to improve efficiency and governance. School selection fees and other sundry charges set ‘key’ schools apart from regular schools in terms of funding capacity, and keep out a large number of students. Urban-rural gaps are also significant. Only 20 to 30% of rural students go to general high school, in contrast to 70% among their urban peers. High expenses and the rise in opportunity cost are the primary reasons for the low high school enrollment rate among rural students. Taking into

Figure 1.  2000–2015 the proportion of unfinished compulsory education age 6–17 chinese children. source: national Bureau of statistics of china, unicEF&unFPa (2017).

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account China’s social and economic development needs in the next 20 years and international expe- rience in moving from middle-income countries to high-income countries, the project team believes that providing free high school education is of paramount importance to China. Lack of preschool education can hardly be made up for with the succeeding school education, and the level of preschool education for children of migrant workers, rural children, and poor children is key to improve China’s preschool education. The project team suggests that in the next 5–10 years, the Chinese government should tilt education subsidies toward key poverty-stricken counties, and gradually toward rural areas in central and western provinces and children of migrant workers (The World Bank & Development Research Center of the State Council, 2012).

The theoretical framework of this article is based on the notion that education policy is part of social policy to achieve social justice. One of the most distinctive features of American social policy is the belief in the capacity of public education to redress unequal opportunity and eliminate poverty. Educational reform has also been the federal government’s favored solution to problems of poverty (Kantor & Lowe, 2013). Though some researchers argue the correction between poverty and education, the authors believe in the efficacy of education to protect against poverty at least in Chinese current social and historical context. The higher level of education the poor have, the higher income and more active in improving their living surroundings.

3. The Chinese mode

3.1. Policy paths

Since China launched its national poverty alleviation initiative in the 1980s, education has been an important approach and content of poverty alleviation. Marked by massive poverty alleviation pro- grams, with the change of the main principle of relieving poverty, China’s anti-poverty policy system since 1986 can be divided into three stages: from 1985 to 2000, from 2001 to 2010, and from 2011 to 2020. China’s experience in the past three decades shows that education is an approach and also an objective of poverty alleviation. Overall, poverty alleviation through education has gone through three stages, with an emphasis on the elimination of illiteracy, access to education and educational equity, and quality education and targeted poverty reduction, respectively. Educational support has been one of the five targeted poverty reduction mechanisms,6 signifying that poverty alleviation through education has reached a new height in China’s anti-poverty policy system.

3.1.1. Stage 1: blood transfusion-style poverty reduction and education as the minor role in the government’s action At the time, the overall goal of the anti-poverty work was to ‘ensure that the 80 million poor people in rural areas can get the basic necessities’. Compared to education and learning, survival was the primary concern of the poor. Therefore, measures were taken to directly bring economic benefits to the poor and increase grain output, and the anti-poverty concept focused on external interventions, while pov- erty alleviation measures gave little attention to the concepts, ability, and quality of people in need. The National Poverty Alleviation Plan (1994–2000) mentions ‘education’ 12 times: one from the angle of poverty causes, three from the perspective of poverty alleviation objectives, and eight with regard to the contents of poverty alleviation through education. It states that to change the situation of educa- tional backwardness, it is imperative to ‘basically popularize primary education and actively eliminate illiteracy among young and middle-aged people,’ and ‘provide vocational training and skills training for adults so that a majority of young and middle-aged laborers can master one or two practical skills.’ It requires educational departments to ‘push forward educational reform in poor rural areas, continue implementing the “Prairie Fire Program” for poverty-stricken counties, popularize primary education, eliminate illiteracy among rural young and middle-aged laborers, and strengthen adult education and vocational education.’

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Similar to the level of economic and social development in the 1990s, Chinese people overall had low levels of educational attainment, so the primary goal of education against poverty was to ‘popularize primary education,’ with a focus on elimination of illiteracy. During this period, the central government released three key documents on education, including the Decisions on the Reform of Educational System, Outline for Educational Reform and Development of China, and Resolutions on Deepening Educational Reform and Comprehensively Promoting Well-rounded Education. Major educational policies all focused on ‘popularizing’ basic education ‘to varying degrees.’ The overall system of education for poverty alle- viation was at the primary stage, not to mention quality of educational development and design of specific contents for different stages.

3.1.2. Stage 2: development-oriented poverty alleviation, comprehensive education anti- poverty policy as policy tool Because of most member countries of UN failing to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) (The United Nations. General Assembly, 2015), the traditional idea of blood transfusion-style poverty reduction faces great challenge. People have started to realize that empowering the poor and capacity building are conducive to reducing the incidence of sinking back into poverty, consolidating anti-pov- erty achievements, and improving the sustainable development of the poverty-stricken population and regions. As the only country to meet the MDG in advance, China also gives emphasis on the develop- ment-oriented poverty alleviation strategy.

The Outline for Poverty Reduction and Development of China’s Rural Areas (2001–2010) first time insti- tutionalize development-oriented poverty alleviation policy broadly, proposing to strengthen the self-development capacity of poor people, stick to comprehensive development and all-round devel- opment, and improve the scientific and cultural literacy of people in poverty-stricken areas. It states that ‘Improving the comprehensive quality of the masses, especially scientific and cultural literacy, is an important measure to increase the income of the poor groups, and a fundamental way to promote poverty-stricken areas to relieve poverty and become prosperous, so scientific and cultural training for farmers must be taken as an important part of poverty alleviation and development. We must vig- orously consolidate basic education and improve the level of education among the poor population; integrate agriculture, science and education, coordinate general education, vocational education and adult education, and improve farmers’ ability to master advanced and practical skills through different types of vocational and technical schools and short-term training.’ The three-pronged anti-poverty policy that coordinates general education, vocational education and adult education caters for the educational needs of poor people and poor areas, and represents a useful exploration in integrating general education and vocational education and advancing the rural educational reform. The proportion of illiterate and semi-illiterate in poor counties has decreased 6.6% from 2002 to 2014.7

Comprehensive education anti-poverty policy, such as finance support, capacity building of the teachers, national education standard, serves as poverty alleviation policy tools. ‘Education’ is men- tioned in the document nine times: two from the perspective of policy advocacy, five from the angle of the contents of poverty alleviation through education, one with regard to cadre education in pov- erty-stricken areas, and one targeting the study of the ‘Three Represents’ thought. During this period, the frequency of the release of policies and documents on poverty alleviation through education rose three times compared to the 15-year period before 2000; four documents on educational poverty reduc- tion before 2000 and sixteen documents on educational poverty reduction have been released from 2001 to 2010. In particular, the State Council forwarded three documents that were developed under the leadership of educational departments, reflecting the state’s high attention to poverty alleviation through education. In 2010, the central government for the first time released opinions on preschool education development and launched the three-year national action plan for preschool education, providing a direct policy basis for serving the preschool needs of children in poverty-stricken areas and children of migrant workers.

At this stage, 42.92 billion (RMB) financial subsidy invested in the maintenance and renovation of primary and secondary schools, and about 12.28 million students benefit from 4.17 billion (RMB) subsidy

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for living expenses for boarding students with financial difficulties in central and western China in 2010.8 Policies on poverty alleviation through education were designed to both serve national poverty reduc- tion objectives and meet the reform and development needs of education itself. Despite educational poverty reduction is one of policy tools to relieve poverty, it still played the marginal role in stage two and has taken more attention to awaken self-consciousness of the poor in the coming days.

3.1.3. Stage 3: from poverty reduction dependent on the outside help to help themselves, education anti-poverty policy is involved in top-level design of national poverty alleviation strategy Compared with the former two stage, not depending on the outside help to get rid of poverty but attach importance to the poor themselves are the distinctive characteristic at stage 3 of Chinese anti-poverty. Poverty alleviation through education means taking education as an objective, content or area of poverty alleviation and taking such measures as policy support, investment increase and structural adjustment to reduce and eliminate poverty. Education is included in the national poverty alleviation plans not only as a poverty reduction measure but also as part of the contents and objectives. Quantified targets and deadlines have also been set. The Outline for Poverty Reduction and Development of China’s Rural Areas (2011–2020) proposes to raise the main indicators of basic public services for people in poverty-stricken areas close to the national average by 2020, and in the field of education, to ‘basically popularize preschool education, further improve compulsory education, ensure universal access to high school, and accelerate the development of long-distance continuing education and community education by 2020.’

The central government of China pays more and more attention to education anti-poverty policy tool. The Outline for Poverty Reduction and Development of China’s Rural Areas (2011–2020) touches on ‘education’ 21 times, about twice the frequency in the previous two policy documents. Specifically, it mentions ‘education’ 16 times from the standpoint of the objectives and contents of poverty alleviation through education and five times in connection with the measures, including subsidizing secondary vocational education, organizing volunteers for education, providing targeted training for civil servants, and providing education on China’s anti-poverty situations for students at schools of different types and levels. The Resolutions of the State Council on Fighting Hard to Win the War against Poverty mentions ‘education’ 24 times, vowing to lift people out of poverty through educational development, industrial development, resettlement, ecological compensation, and social security. Increasing people’s income through economic measures has been effective policy instrument for long, and has always been pov- erty alleviation policy instrument. But at this stage, education has for the first time been used as a ‘independence’ policy instrument alongside economic and industrial policy tools.

3.2. Basic characteristics

Education anti-poverty is an essential part of China poverty alleviation which make great progress since 2011 when the central government enhance the poverty guidelines to the level of per capita net income of RMB2300(2010 constant price) and the number of poor population has decreased 13 million annually (See Figure 2). There are five basic characteristics of China education anti-poverty policy as the following.

3.2.1. Rational goal of focusing on nine-year compulsory education On the one hand, in the national anti-poverty action over the past 30 years, compulsory education, despite the varying levels of popularization in different regions, has remained an essential part of anti-poverty policies. The National Poverty Alleviation Plan (1994–2000) focuses on five- or six-year pri- mary education, with the elimination of illiteracy being a main part of the anti-poverty initiative in some poor areas. During the first ten years of the twenty-first century, the central government extended the stage of education against poverty in two directions, especially to preschool education that comes before basic education and high school education following basic education. As for preschool education, the government focused anti-poverty efforts on expanding resources by renovating or establishing

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kindergartens. With regard to secondary vocational education and regular high school education, tui- tion exemptions and living subsidies were used as main anti-poverty measures. In alignment with the first centennial goal to build a moderately prosperous society in all aspects by 2020, the government proposed at the third stage the requirements on balanced development and quality of compulsory education, and put in place the supervision and evaluation mechanism for balanced development of compulsory education.

On the other hand, compulsory education occupies a crucial position in the socialist educational system with Chinese characteristics. The Law on Compulsory Education stipulates that compulsory edu- cation shall be mandatory for all school-age children and adolescents, and a public undertaking the state must guarantee; no tuitions and miscellaneous fees shall be charged for compulsory education. According to the Education Law, the State applies a system of nine-year compulsory education, and governments at all levels shall take various measures to guarantee school-age children’s and adoles- cents’ access to education. The Education Law, the basic law on education, was enacted in 1995, 10 years later than the Law on Compulsory Education, but it coincided with the beginning of the first national anti-poverty program launched in 1994. The Education Law prescribes that compulsory education shall last nine years, emphasizing that it is mandatory, free and universal (Yuan, 2013, p. 13). It can be seen that compulsory education is the most important part of the legal and policy system for education.

3.2.2. Classified and tiered efforts and more targeted policies regarding education against poverty China’s poverty issues have regional characteristics. There are now 14 contiguous destitute areas in China, covering 832 poverty-stricken counties. Meanwhile, 128,000 registered poor villages with a poor population of more than 43 million in total are scattered across over 20 provinces. Intra-group gaps are also significant. In today’s China, poverty is mainly manifested in relative deprivation of wealth and welfare rather than the traditional economic backwardness. The levels of poverty also vary. By group, those stuck in deep poverty mainly include persons with disabilities, elderly people living alone and long-time patients who are unable to work, as well as some impoverished people who lack skills due to low levels of education (Xi, 2017a, 2017b, p. 2).

Figure 2. total number of the poor population from 2011 to 2016 in china. source: statistical communique on national economic and social development of statistical communique on national economic and social development, varies year.

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In response to the different causes of poverty and different needs of the poor, the Chinese govern- ment has developed diversified objectives and measures for poverty alleviation through education. The government collectively resettles the poor in the case of eco-driven immigration, and develops basic public education and service planning for the school-age group. For people to be lifted out of poverty through the development of specialty industries, the government vigorously supports people in need, mainly through vocational education and training system, to improve their skills and quality, such as the practical skills training at the first stage, scientific literacy training at the second stage, sec- ondary vocational education at the third stage, and the initiative of building a key secondary vocational school in each county. The government also provides quality educational services for poor people with disabilities. In the new age, non-agricultural income contributes a lot to the increase in poor people’s income; for low-income groups covered in the development-oriented poverty alleviation initiative, the government has raised the compulsory education consolidation rate among the school-age population, improved the skills of non-school-age laborers, and made the education-backed poverty alleviation policies more targeted under the household-based mechanism.

3.2.3. Diverse policy instruments and shift from education spending compensation to educational capacity building Traditional education-backed poverty alleviation policies mainly adopt fiscal policy instruments, that is, providing, exempting or reducing tuitions for compulsory education. In recent years, non-fiscal policy instruments such as nutritious meals, rural teacher team building and targeted enrollment policies of key universities have also been used. Fiscal means and the goal of ensuring the rural poor popula- tion’s access to compulsory education have been highlighted in a number of government documents, ranging from the Decisions on the Reform of Educational System in 1985 to the Notice on Implementing the Education against Poverty Program in 2013, which was developed by the Ministry of Education and forwarded by the General Office of the State Council. Since 2010, the government has rolled out one policy on education against poverty every year, and the national student subsidy system has extended from compulsory education to regular high school education, preschool education, and secondary vocational education. In 2007, the State Council issued the Opinions on Improving the Subsidy System for Financially Challenged Students at Regular Institutions of Higher Learning, Tertiary Vocational Schools and Secondary Vocational Schools, increasing subsidies to students in need at the stage of higher education. In addition to exemptions of textbook fees, tuitions and sundry charges, the government has adopted flexible and diversified policies to subsidize accommodation fees, transportation fees and nutritious meals and provide all kinds of grants, scholarships, and discount loans. The central government has increased subsidies on the basis of local government spending, and introduced preferential policies guiding social forces to provide grants and scholarships for students from poor families. The government should ‘encourage private enterprises, social organizations and individuals to participate in poverty alleviation and development…and encourage social organizations to carry out household-based tar- geted poverty alleviation through the mode of government purchasing services.’ The Special Position Program gives priority to meeting the needs of poverty-stricken counties, and the National Training Program gives priority to supporting rural teacher and principal training in poverty-stricken counties. In addition, the country will ‘continue to implement the targeted enrollment programs at national, local and university levels… and give preference to students from registered poor households on the same terms and conditions.’9

3.2.4. Improvement on targeted mechanism which making quantified evaluation on the outcomes of education anti-poverty policy and shed light on the policy adjustment at the same time It is difficult to evaluate the efficacy of education anti-poverty policy similar to the judgment on good governance. Improvement on targeted mechanism which making quantified evaluation on the out- comes of poverty alleviation policy and shed light on the perfection of education anti-poverty according to the quantified evaluation indicator. Blood transfusion-style poverty alleviation based on regions

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or counties is hard to achieve the trickle-down effect, and the county-targeted mechanism based on the poverty line has been questioned as the poor population in the ‘state-designated key counties for poverty alleviation work’ declined from 90% in the 1990s to less than 70% at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The county-targeted mechanism is not suitable for the new demographic pattern of the poor population—some live together over vast areas while some live in individual concentrated communities in small areas. For this reason, the mechanism is liable to result in deviations from poverty alleviation objectives and inefficient use of poverty alleviation resources. The village-based strategy adopted during the first decade of the twenty-first century improved the effects of poverty alleviation, but four out of five people in poor villages live above the poverty line (Li, 2013, pp. 101–106). With the adjustments to the national anti-poverty targeting mechanism, household has become the main unit in education-backed poverty alleviation policies since the end of the twentieth century. Currently, anti-poverty efforts are mainly targeting at the more than 200,000 registered poor households. However, some destitute households are still not covered due to such factors as social capital, personal concepts, isolation, and social exclusion. Therefore, the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development has improved the registration mechanism and called for dynamic adjustments, so as to make poverty alleviation more targeted. The Plan for Poverty Alleviation through Education during the 13th Five-year Period pledges to ensure that the registered poor population can have access to basic public services by 2020 and that no student drops out school because of poverty.10

3.2.5. Inclusion of education against poverty in national anti-poverty strategic strategy and plan Education is one of China’s anti-poverty policy instruments, and has occupied an increasingly impor- tant position. The National Poverty Alleviation Plan (1994–2000) has 7225 Chinese characters, of which contents dedicated to education (222 characters) account for about 0.03%; the Outline for Poverty Reduction and Development of China’s Rural Areas (2001–2010) has 6529 Chinese characters, of which contents dedicated to education (181 characters) make up about 0.03%; and the Outline for Poverty Reduction and Development of China’s Rural Areas (2011–2020) has 10132 Chinese characters, of which 505 touch on education, accounting for about 0.05%. Overall, the status of education in anti-poverty policies during the first 10 years of the twenty-first century was lower than that at the end of the twen- tieth century and at the third stage since 2010. As for the frequency of policy release, the third stage has seen the most policies rolled out: from 2012 to 2016, a total of 10 major policies regarding poverty alleviation through education have been adopted, or two policies a year on average. Three or four policies were introduced every year in 2004, 2005, 2012, and 2015, topping any other years from the beginning of the twenty-first century. It can be seen from comparisons that the status of education in national anti-poverty actions has shown a U-shaped trend.

The status of education against poverty in China’s poverty alleviation policy system has gradually risen, and the quantified indexes for the effects of education against poverty have been taken as per- formance indicators for targeted poverty reduction. As an increasingly important poverty alleviation measure, poverty alleviation through education has made contributions to the world development-ori- ented poverty reduction theory and provided public governance experience for the world.

4. Conclusions

This paper first gives an overview of China’s role in and contributions to the world anti-poverty action, and introduces the status quo of education against poverty in China. Then it takes a look at the status of education in the world anti-poverty theory and sorts out specific views. According to major anti-poverty programs, it divides China’s education against poverty policy system into three stages, and conducts systematic analysis on the status of the educational policy instrument and main measures at each stage. Finally, it sets out the five characteristics of poverty alleviation through education in China. The highly focused policies in this regard are consistent with the adjustments to the country’s anti-poverty macro-strategy. Classified and tiered efforts in education against poverty have been conducted, policy

1110 X. ERYONG AND Z. XIUPING

instruments diversified, and the educational policy instrument against poverty included in China’s overall anti-poverty initiative.

Due to the difficulties in measuring the income and income mobility of rural households, the stand- ards for poor households based on the poverty line face various governance dilemmas. Therefore, education-backed poverty alleviation policies aimed at helping registered poor households need to be more targeted, which is also a common issue for public policy. In the next steps, the researchers plan to further refine the theoretical concepts and policy standards of poverty alleviation through educa- tion based on China’s practices, and distinguish education against poverty from educational equity, in the hope of promoting the progress of education against poverty and educational reform, and thus contributing to social equity and justice.

Notes 1. More information can see the report of Migrant Chinese development 2016, http://www.cssn.cn/zx/shwx/

shhnew/201610/t20161019_3241404.shtml. 2. White Paper on China’s Progress in Poverty Reduction and Human Rights. http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2016-

10/17/c_1119730413.htm 3. More information can see as the following, Education Targeted Poverty Alleviation Plan of Guizhou province (2016–

2020), http://www.gzsedu.cn/2016/02/22/213218124378.html; Sichuan Province Ten-year Plan of Education reform and development in minority concentrated region (2011–2020), http://www.scfpym.gov.cn/show.aspx?id=17405; The program of Rural Pupils Nutrition has made great progress in Guangxi Province, http://www.seac.gov.cn/ art/2015/10/26/art_36_240611.html; Education Targeted Poverty Alleviation Plan of Gansu province, http://www. gsedu.gov.cn/content-29536.htm

4. The five theoretical frameworks of poverty are as follows: Firstly, poverty occurs in the absence of effectively functioning markets. Secondly, poverty occurs because some people are either unprepared or unable to participate in market productively. Thirdly, the market creates poverty. Fourthly, poverty is due to social and political processes that occur outside the market. Finally, poverty is the result of individual behavioral characteristics and choices. Retrieved from Peters and Besley (2014).

5. Rozelle, S. How Rural Child Development Will Affect the Future of China? http://www.sohu.com/a/192679488_177272. 6. The other four targeted poverty reduction mechanism is as follows: 1. Alleviating poverty is based on the

development of production and employment. 2. Alleviating poverty is through relocation and resettlement. 3. Alleviating poverty is through ecological protection. 4. Alleviating poverty is through the policy of minimum living stands. Retrieved from the article of ‘working together to eradicate Poverty and promote Common Development’. October 16th 2015, Selected Papers from the 18 National Congress. Beijing: China Central Literature Press, 2016, p. 720.

7. Data retrieved from the following reports: Department of Household Surveys National Bureau of Statistics of China. Poverty Monitoring Report of Rural China 2015. Beijing: China Statistics Press, 2016, p. 34. Department of Household Surveys National Bureau of Statistics of China. Poverty Monitoring Report of Rural China 2011. Beijing: China Statistics Press, 2012, p. 127.

8. Data from the news released on the web of ministry of finance of the P.R.C. http://jkw.mof.gov.cn/zhengwuxinxi/ tourudongtai/201003/t20100325_280527.html; http://jkw.mof.gov.cn/zhengwuxinxi/tourudongtai/201005/ t20100531_320289.html.

9. Ministry of Education, et al. Notice on the Release of the Plan for Poverty Alleviation through Education during the 13th Five-year Period. http://www.moe.edu.cn/srcsite/A03/moe_1892/moe_630/201612/t20161229_293351.html.

10. http://www.moe.edu.cn/srcsite/A03/moe_1892/moe_630/201612/t20161229_293351.html.

Disclosure statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71441028].

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY 1111

Notes on contributors Xue Eryong is a professor of Faculty of Education and China Institute of Education and Social Development of Beijing Normal University, and a young scholar of the Yangtze River scholar, Ministry of education. The main research direction includes education strategy, education policy, education law, education equity, and so on. In recent years, he has published over 80 academic papers in the ‘Education Research’ (authoritative journal in the field of Educational Research in China), ‘Seeking Truth’ (authoritative journals in the field of Public Policy in China), SSCI Journals, etc. He has published two monographs and edited seven books. He has presided over more than 10 projects, such as the National Social Science Fund Project, the National Natural Science Foundation Project and so on. He has written and submitted more than 40 research reports, and get the adoption of the relevant national decision-making departments of China.

Zhou Xiuping is a researcher of China Institute of Education and Social Development of Beijing Normal University. At present, she focuses in the study of the education policy of Chinese migrant, Vocational education policy and rural education policy. One of main programs she presided now is the project of the social stratification and policy influence of the high school education choice of the migrant students financed by National Office for Education Sciences Planning. Previously, Xiuping has done her postdoctoral research majoring in non-government organizations at school of public policy & Management at Tsinghua University from 2009 to 2011.

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