Educational inequality: Hidden consequences of the reform era in rural China.

Abstract

A recurring theme in the stratification literature on China has been the expectation that market reforms dating from the late 1970s heightened the importance of education as a determinant of income and occupational attainment. The theoretical focus on returns to education, however, has not been matched by attention to the implications of market transition for the allocation of education. This dissertation brings a new perspective to the so-called market transition debate by explicitly examining educational stratification in the reform era, focusing on basic education in rural areas. Analyses were performed using published education data, nationally representative survey data, and census data from 1982 and 1990. Results showed that rural children were disadvantaged vis-a-vis their urban counterparts in basic education. Within rural areas, girls, certain minority nationalities, and children in poor households and poor villages were particularly disadvantaged. Gender inequality was greater in impoverished households. Ethnic differences in education were partly attributable to socio-economic development and household socio-economic status differentials. Finally, and most significantly, declines in junior high school transitions occurred in rural areas in the 1980s, both in absolute terms and relative to urban areas. Increasing differentials by gender and ethnicity were also apparent at the junior high school transition. Inequities in basic education, and their increase in the 1980s, can be linked to policies associated with market reforms that restricted the supply of schools in rural areas and raised the direct and opportunity costs of education. These findings highlight the point that a clear picture of educational allocation is needed to place in context educational returns. The far-reaching impact of market reforms on basic education in China means that changes in educational returns across the reform period reflect not just a change in the utility of educational credentials themselves, but also a compositional shift in the social origins of students. Education may increasingly serve as a reliable ticket to income and occupational attainment, but the effects of any such shift on a child's real life chances are mitigated by the fact that access to educational credentials increasingly depends on the conditions of his or her birth.