Download pdf
Educational Inequalities Due to Regional Differences in China, Exemplified by Yunnan and Guangdong Provinces: An Analysis Based on Socio-economic, Cultural Context and Policy Factors
- 1 University of Leeds
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
China's reform and opening up have led to remarkable advancements in education and the economy. However, regional inequality has become a prominent issue, particularly between border and coastal areas. Using as examples, This study examines the educational discrepancies between Yunnan Province and Guangdong Province as examples, aiming to identify the causes of such inequality. The study discovers that one primary cause of regional educational inequality is the disparity in socio-economic development. As a economically developed coastal region, Guangdong possesses greater economic capacity for rapid growth and can allocate more funding towards educational resources and infrastructural development. In contrast, less developed areas like Yunnan have made insufficient investments in this field. Furthermore, cultural differences significantly impact education levels: coastal regions such as Guangdong have higher expectations for higher education and value the role of the family in education; whereas frontier areas like Yunnan prioritize education less due to geographic and cultural constraints, resulting in lower levels of attention and investment. Each local government's policy stance and investment direction differ: economically developed locations tend to attract more qualified instructors and associated resources, while less developed regions lag behind, aggravating the unequal distribution of educational resources. This paper contends that regional economic disparities are the main driver of educational inequality, particularly in terms of investment and access to educational resources. Bridging the economic gap between different regions is crucial for achieving educational equity, which is closely linked to the country's overall prosperity and stability.
Keywords
Regional differences in China, educational inequality, ideology, poor population, ethnic minority education.
[1]. Yang, J., Huang, X., & Liu, X. (2014). An analysis of education inequality in China. International Journal of Educational Development, 37, 2-10.
[2]. Zhang, J., & Verhoeven, J. C. (2010). Access to higher education of 25 ethnic minorities in Yunnan Province, South Western China. Frontiers of Education in China, 5(2), 290-308.
[3]. Zhang, G. (2018). Study on the Problem of anti-poverty in rural education of Yunnan. In 2018 8th international conference on social science and education research (SSER 2018), 448-451.
[4]. Liao, L., Du, M., Wang, B., & Yu, Y. (2019). The impact of educational investment on sustainable economic growth in Guangdong, China: A cointegration and causality analysis. Sustainability, 11(3), 766.
[5]. Wang Shanmai. (2008). Analytical framework and evaluation indicators of educational equity. Journal of Beijing Normal University: Social Sciences Edition, 3, 93-97.
[6]. Rong, X. L., & Shi, T. (2001). Inequality in Chinese Education. Journal of Contemporary China, 10(26), 107–124.
[7]. Wu, F., Zhang, D., & Zhang, J. (2008). Unequal education, poverty and low growth—A theoretical framework for rural education of China. Economics of Education Review, 27(3), 308-318.
[8]. Brown, P. H., & Park, A. (2002). Education and poverty in rural China. Economics of education review, 21(6), 523-541.
[9]. Liao, F. H., & Wei, Y. D. (2012). Dynamics, space, and regional inequality in provincial China: A case study of Guangdong province. Applied Geography, 35(1-2), 71-83.
[10]. Zhang, Y., Fang, J., & Fang, D. (2023). The Regional Difference Measurement and Convergence of Educational Assistance Efficiency: An Example from the Data of Overcome Poverty Population in the Ethnic and Border Area of Yunnan. Journal of Yunnan Agricultural University, 17(3), 55-61.
[11]. Yi, L. (2008). Cultural exclusion in China: State education, social mobility and cultural difference. (1st ed.)Routledge, 1-18.
[12]. Song, L., Appleton, S., & Knight, J. (2006). Why do girls in rural China have lower school enrollment?. World Development, 34(9), 1639-1653.
[13]. Lan, Lu, (2017) A Study on the Ideological Problems and Educational Guidance of the Poverty. Population in Yunnan Minority Areas, School of Marxism, Central China Normal University, 1-10.
[14]. Liu, A., Li, W., & Xie, Y. (2020). Social inequality in child educational development in China. Chinese journal of sociology, 6 (2), 219-238.
[15]. Guo YZ, Zhou Y, Liu YS (2020) The inequality of educational resources and its countermeasures for rural revitalization in southwest China. Journal of Mountain Science 17(2), 304-315
Cite this article
Liang,X. (2024). Educational Inequalities Due to Regional Differences in China, Exemplified by Yunnan and Guangdong Provinces: An Analysis Based on Socio-economic, Cultural Context and Policy Factors. Communications in Humanities Research,49,6-11.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Art, Design and Social Sciences
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).