An Empirical Study on Balanced Development of Region-level Compulsory Education in China—Based on Analyses of Theil Indexes from 2003 to 2012
Abstract
Balanced development of compulsory education is currently the most important strategic task in education for Chinese government. For measuring the balance level and its structure of Chinese compulsory education, Theil indexes of twelve indicators of three dimensions from 2003 to 2012 were analyzed. The following conclusions were obtained—the balance level of compulsory education in China presented a growing trend as a whole, however, there were structural differences in terms of dimensions, indicators, educational stages and regions: 1) The balance levels of educational expenditures were the highest, followed by teacher resources and material resources; 2) the balance levels of teacher qualifications compliance rate and senior teacher rate were improved significantly, but the balance level of pupil-teacher ratio for junior secondary education declined dramatically and continuously; 3)junior education’ balance levels were higher than primary education; 4) northeast China’s balance levels were the highest, east China’s balance levels were significantly lower than other regions. Meanwhile, the inter-regional differences’ contributing rate to the total unbalance was greater than intra-regional differences.