The Discrepancies in Educational Equipment between Urban and Rural Areas in Chinese Compulsory Education

—Focus on T City, Jilin Province—

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the discrepancies in educational equipment between urban and rural compulsory education schools, which is ignored as a result of the illusion that the balanced development of compulsory education has been realized by the government's effective measures for narrowing such discrepancies. This paper focuses on T city, in China's Jilin province. Results of the questionnaire investigation and interviews conducted by the author show that there are still marked discrepancies in educational equipment between urban and rural schools. Although discrepancies in the quantity of equipment have been reduced, discrepancies in quality and utility remain and call for an urgent solution. These findings indicate that the evaluation system known as the Basic Equilibrium Prefecture of Compulsory Education Development is likely to further widen the discrepancies between available equipment and students' academic abilities. Further, it will reduce educational opportunities, especially for rural students in the compulsory education stage.