Debate: School selection fees

Should schools charging school-selection and other arbitrary fees be penalized? Two experts and a journalist present their views.

Xiong Bingqi

Public should be part of decisions

This year school-selection fees in some key Beijing primary schools were reported to be as high as 250,000 yuan ($39,125). The common interests of the local education department, schools and agencies have turned the school-selection fees into a chronic disease, although the Compulsory Education Law implemented in 2006 states: "School-age children and adolescents shall be exempted from entrance examinations (and) local people's governments at various levels shall ensure that school-age children and adolescents enroll in schools near the places their residences are registered."

In other words, the law says that the government should promote balanced development in compulsory education. But despite the government's crackdown on the illegal practice of charging school-selection fees, the trend has grown.

The situation has deteriorated because the government's move is considered a mere slogan rather than a concerted effort carried out at local levels to promote balanced compulsory education. Generally speaking, three factors have thwarted the balanced development of compulsory education.

First, unreasonable and insecure funding for compulsory education have prompted schools to charge such fees and even increase them with the passage of time. Also, the insecure financial state of schools is an important reason for the severe imbalance between schools in rural and urban areas and different regions of the country. The mechanism has not changed much even after government efforts to promote balanced compulsory education.

Second, the severe lack of funds for compulsory education has worsened the situation. The National Audit Office covered 54 counties for a survey on funds for rural compulsory education from January 2006 to June 2007. The results showed that eight of the counties failed to allot funds as regulated and five reduced the amounts instead of increasing them.

And third, local governments have paid special attention to senior middle schools and high schools because their quality of education determines the percentage of students from schools in their jurisdictions clearing the national college entrance exam and getting admitted to prestigious universities. No wonder, even though the Compulsory Education Law says proportionate funds should be allotted to all sections of schools during the nine-year compulsory education, few local governments actually do so.

Unbalanced development of compulsory education may "favor" many local governments, because it could help generate extra revenue from school-selection fees and reduce their financial inputs into education. The education departments could even save some funds by exchanging resources with other government departments.

The school-selection fees, which for all intents and purposes are illegal, should be banned immediately to ensure that compulsory education develops in a balanced and proper way. The fund security mechanism for compulsory education should be changed and efforts made at both national and local levels to increase the allocations. Besides, an education management system must be established to guarantee the public's right to participate in decision-making and supervision.

At present, the government alone decides how much funding should be allocated to the education sector and/or how it should be used. And many times, the funds are allotted haphazardly. Therefore, to solve this problem, the public should have the right to know, participate, express its opinion, make decisions and supervise the authorities. And only by systematically carrying out these measures for reform and development can we get out of the predicament and ensure balanced development of compulsory education.

The author is deputy director of Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Institute.