Evaluation on the Development of Education System and Unequal Distribution of Educational Resources

1. Introduction

After the COVID-19 epidemic, the economy began to grow slowly or even decline. It is commonly known that education and the economy promote each other. The progress of education can bring about the improvement of science and technology, thus making the economy develop rapidly. Therefore, education is one of the most important factors in economic development. However, the problem of unequal distribution of educational resources is quite serious, which leads to abnormal population distribution in society and inability of the economy to develop rapidly. China has been working towards equal distribution of educational resources, but has not yet achieved it [1].

The income gap between people is becoming larger, that the rich are getting richer, and the poor have no chance to change their live paths. This situation gradually causes greater social pressure [2]. People work harder and harder, but have no chance to show their talents. This paper conjectures that the distribution of educational resources has a huge impact on the economy. However, the problem with education itself is affected by people’s perceptions. In China, parents believe that if their children cannot study in a good school, they will be eliminated by society and even cannot survive in the future, though studies have shown that employers put more emphasis on candidates’ job-readiness [3]. This deep-rooted misconception leads to increasing pressure on students. Everyone works very hard just to go to an excellent school and get a good job in the future. However, due to the unequal distribution of resources, some students have no chance to contribute to the society despite their capabilities [4].

Some students are not suitable for some high-skilled jobs, but their parents ask them to do so. This situation has caused many problems. Everyone does not work in a suitable position for themselves, and everyone wants to work in high-paying and high-skilled jobs, even though they are not suitable. This has led to a gradual lack of labor in some low-skilled jobs. The economy cannot operate steadily, and many laborers are idle just because people are unwilling to work in low-level jobs. Today's society already has a serious aging problem, which means that there are more and more elderly people, and young people are unwilling to have children due to social pressure, so the upper and middle parts of the population who constructs the working force is gradually shrinking. The country needs to spend more financial resources to support the elderly, but the society does not have enough labor to promote the country's economic development. Due to the unequal education distribution and people's misperceptions, this situation will be further deepened.

The population structure is gradually deviating from the correct direction, and the aging problem is increasing sharply. This paper summarizes the education development in China, and believes that the old educational perceptions affect people's actions. Therefore, this paper proposes that the government should carry out education reform and provide education subsidies for students with poor conditions to make resource distribution more equal, which then can contribute to the economic growth.

2. Education Development in China

In 2022, China’s the actual education expenditure increased by 5.97% from 2021, reaching 613,291.4 billion yuan, which the budget was only 484,729.1 billion yuan. Among which, 392,569.6 billion yuan was spent on operating the nation’s general public education, accounting for 15.07% of total government spending, and 4.01% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) [5]. Table 1 below displays the distribution of education expenditure in China according to the data from the Ministry of Education [5].

Table 1: Distribution of education expenditure in China (Data Source: Ministry of Education).

However, higher education resource is insufficient to serve the huge number of students at the provincial level. Such unequal distribution has been prominent since the last decade, that although high school students are gradually accessing higher education with equal chances, the unequal resources make it difficult to benefit all college students equally from higher education [6]. The large number of people born in the 1970s has led to a shortage of resources for their offspring, resulting in some changes in the new generation's perceptions about marriage and childbirth. According to the Ministry of Education, there are 52,900 junior high schools, including 9 vocational, in China, an increase of 0.12% from 2020. There are 170,544,400 students, an increase of 7,333,400 from 2020 by 4.49%. There are 50,184,400 students in colleges and universities, an increase of 2.12% corresponding to 1,043,500 more students from 2020. There are 15,871,500 graduates, an increase of 518,600 from the previous year, which is an increase of 3.38%. China's educational resources are not proportional to the growth of the population, and the resources are far from enough, which exacerbates the problem of large differences in resource allocation [7]. Some students cannot enjoy fair education, and they do not have a chance to improve themselves, even though they have talents. This is very unfair. Some students enjoy very good educational resources but waste them. This is an unequal competition, and the development of society will be affected because excellent people cannot fully utilize their talents.

It is found that there are large differences in the distribution of educational resources in various regions of China [8]. Some developed cities have several times more private schools than those in less-developed cities. This means that students in developed cities have two study options, either public schools or private schools. Students in some less-developed cities can only go to public schools, but due to the number of students who need to go to school has far exceeded the number of places provided by public schools, many students do not even have the opportunity obtain education.

3. Unequal Distribution of Education Resource

First, China's educational inequality is affected by the difference in education between the East and the West [8]. For example, the college entrance examination, as China's most important academic level test, has an admission policy that is more biased towards students in the eastern region. The admission rate in the western region is far lower than that in the central and eastern regions. The gap in educational resources between the east and the west of China has always existed. The reasons why educational inequality happened are much many, including the overall educational level of the population and the investment in education funds. Data shows that the illiteracy rate in the eastern region is only about 7%, while in western regions such as Tibet it is as high as 47% [8]. The high illiteracy rate in the western region is not conducive to the formation of a good social atmosphere, which makes more families ignore the importance of education, thus further deepening the imbalance of education between the east and the west. Furthermore, the huge difference in educational resources also affects the inequality between the eastern and western regions, such as the projector equipment, desks and classroom environment used for learning. Most provinces and cities in the east provide modern teaching for education from primary to junior high school. The teaching environment and facilities undoubtedly cause the gap in average educational outcomes [8].

Second, the urban and rural disparities and social classes are also contributors leading to educational inequality in China. According to the China Human Development Report, the urban illiteracy rate in in 2000 was only one-third of that in rural areas. In addition, the average education age in rural areas is 6.8 years old, which is almost two-thirds of that in cities. Due to the implementation of nine-year compulsory education in China, the gap in the quality of Year 1 to Year 9 education between urban and rural areas narrows down. However, the difference in high school education is still huge. The main reason for the unbalanced development between urban and rural education is the gap in educational resources, environment and remuneration. The school's infrastructure and teaching staff are far behind those in cities. Due to the relatively poor living environment and relatively low salary levels in rural areas, high-quality teachers and administrators are not willing to go to rural areas, it is difficult to meet the strict requirements of cities for school management and teaching [8].

The third important factor is that teachers’ salary differences leads to large differences in education distribution. Teachers' salaries are composed of position salary, performance salary, allowances and others. The level of performance salary depends largely on the financial payment capacity of local governments, which leads to differences in teacher salaries between regions. The gap in education funding has affected teachers' income, which has led to the relatively higher teacher incomes in the eastern region being more able to attract talents, which has again caused a gap in teaching quality between different regions and further caused inequality in education [8]. Rural areas will have poorer-quality teaching staff, resulting in unequal distribution of educational resources between urban and rural areas, and the gap between the two regions is getting bigger and bigger. Since teachers in rural and urban areas generally earn less than those in urban areas, most teachers are unwilling to teach in rural areas. Moreover, the living environment in rural areas is not as good as that in cities, so teachers still choose to live in cities. This is also a major reason for the unequal distribution of educational resources.

4. Policy Recommendations

The suggestion put forward in this article is to carry out education reform in order to achieve equal distribution of resources and allow sustainable economic development. China once proposed a "double reduction policy", which means that the government advocates reducing the pressure on children, the burden of homework in school and the burden of off-campus training. The government also proposes to let 50% of students learn a kind of skills in vocational school and serve the economy after graduation, with the other half of students receive higher education, so as to cultivate high-skills to do research and contribute to society [9]. However, the implementation of the double reduction policy has not achieved very good results, which still subjects to challenges [10]. The school proposed to delay school dismissal, encouraging students to finish their homework in school and rest after returning home. However, most parents will require students to continue to go to institutions for private tutoring after returning home from school. Although the government has strongly suppressed educational institutions and prohibited schools from allowing students to return to school for tutoring during holidays, schools will still find students to go to other places for unified learning. Instead of reducing pressure, students become more tired.

This article proposes that educating parents and changing their perceptions on education to help solve the problems. Chinese parents have always believed that students must go to college to have a good life in the future, so even if the government implements the double reduction policy, parents will still find ways to make their students receive more tutoring. Therefore, if the government can provide information for parents and let them realize that grassroots occupation is also a very respectable profession, students will have more options rather than going to college as the only way out. In addition, education reform also needs to provide a fair educational environment for all students. Everyone should enjoy equal educational resources, so that talented people can do their best to contribute to this society. The government should reduce the cost of education so that students in every region can afford high-quality education. The government should give some subsidies to poor students as well. This will not only reduce the differences between regions, but also provide students with a reasonable and fair learning environment.

5. Conclusion

This article argues that unequal educational resources and wrong educational perceptions have led to students generally being under high pressure. Due to huge social pressure, young people are unwilling or unable to have children, and the aging problem is thus intensified. This has affected economic development. This article analyzes the reasons for these problems. The first is that there is a large difference in admissions between the eastern and western of the country, and some regions will enjoy some better policies to go to a good university. The second reason is that there is a large difference between urban and rural areas, which leads to students having unequal educational resources, so they cannot compete fairly. The third is because of the unequal distribution of teachers’ income. Some teachers in developed cities may have higher incomes, so students in underdeveloped cities will have poorer resources. They will fall behind those students in developed cities.

Therefore, this article proposes to provide more information to form people’s perception on the goal of education, so that students can choose the path that suits them. Parents need to fully realize the importance of contributing to the society even with ordinary professions, so that not everyone needs to go to college and do office work. Once the perception of education is changed, the pressure on students will be greatly reduced, and there will be sufficient supply of labour in the economy, with reduced social pressure. The government should also distribute resources fairly so that all students can enjoy equal educational resources, and create a fair and benign educational environment. The government can also provide subsidies to poor students so that they have the same resources to compete with others, give full play to their greatest advantages, and contribute to this society.