Teachers are also the interview target. Hu Huan is a rural teacher devoting herself on rural education who used to be a white color employee in a big city. She finds that rural education has been marginalized due to the lack of attention. Besides, fewer and fewer people choose to work as a rural teacher because not only the salary is poor, but also the educational facilities are deficient which bring a great trouble to teaching. Meanwhile the obsolete traditional educational theory makes the situation worse. If the rural education is not improved, the situation of it will get worse and worse.
Qian Hao is the commissioner of education who tells us that the authority has taken various countermeasures to accelerate the improvement of rural education. However, the relevant educational policies could be implemented timely and some government officials use those educational funds illegally. It is no doubt that government plays a vital role in improving rural education and the outcome of rural education can bring a huge benefit for national quality as well as rural development. But lacking effective governmental mechanism, efforts paid on the rural education can be in vain due to the illegal behaviors.
Generally speaking, there is a huge space for rural educational system to improve. In the interview with people from Da He we know how the people make a sense of the rural education and find out the real situation of rural educational development.
The lack of learning opportunities is both the cause and the result of rural poverty. In rural areas, economic and social obstacles prevent children from enrolling in the school, especially for girls. Furthermore, due to the extent of demographic trends, in which a large amount of people migrate from rural areas to urban areas, and the increasing focus on urbanization, less and less attention is paid on rural development, which leads to a vicious circle for rural education. Besides, “the overall rural poverty situation remains critical as rural areas continue to suffer from inadequate resource allocation, be it from domestic budgets or from international aid” (Lakin et al., 2017). Therefore, it is of great importance for us to take measures in order to improve the present situation for rural education. Here are some recommendations for different aspects to devote their efforts.
First of all, government has a special responsibility to take the lead in guiding the development of rural education. Government should give policy focus on education, promote educational practices and enhance the national quality. Human market pays more and more attention on people’s quality, both educational quality and technical quality, which requires people to increase their competence. Although people have such awareness of education, they lack the opportunities to realize their job expectations in rural areas. Currently, the allocation for educational resources is unbalance, including faculties and hardware equipment. Rural areas have received far more less resources than urban areas do. One of the prominent and vital filed is faculty deficiency which is the biggest problem. In order to solve this issue, government should recruit teachers of different subjects and deploy them to the understaffed schools in rural areas. Besides, as previous analysis on the causes of teachers shortage, government can consider to raise the salary for the teachers so as to appeal more talents to work in the rural areas. Besides, it is essential to improve the hardware equipment in school, such as accommodation and teaching tools. Government can cooperate with universities and encourage college students to teach in the poverty-stricken rural areas with referential policies. Allocating education resources evenly is influential to the development for rural education. Government can release the economic burden for children in rural areas to go to school and implement the policy of compulsory education. Also, improving the condition of transportation brings convenience and safety to the children and teachers. In order to implement various educational activities soundly, administrative structures and governance mechanism is indispensable. An effective governance mechanism can guarantee the national support being used in the right place. Some officials abuse their power to graft national resources for personal interests regardless of people’s livelihood. These behaviors should be strictly forbidden because they do not perform the obligations and damage public interests severely, which will plant a time bomb for the government.
Secondly, parents in rural areas should change the obsolete educational concept, which thinks that women without talent is virtuous and education is helpless. Besides, children should treasure the educational opportunities to learn knowledge and skills. “Kids have the potential to rebuild our rural economies and lead us into tomorrow. We need to make sure every child has a chance to succeed and contribute to their communities” (Brien, 2017). Such obsolete education concepts have deeply ingrained in the mind of some rural families so that they are unwilling to send their children to receive education, especially for girls. Some parents might think that it is better to work on the field to earn money for the family rather than spend time in the school. However, education is a long term investment. In a long run, education can change family’s lifestyle. The enrichment of knowledge can prepare children in rural areas to explore the outside world and earn their life by knowledge which is a value-added skill despite of age. No matter male or female, the opportunity to receive education is equal. Family can also think about changing the traditional agricultural way by utilizing technology so as to improve the farming and reduce the labor cost. Family member in rural areas can have some technical training which can add a new means for livelihood. Sticking to traditional agriculture concept stubbornly is no longer suitable for development nowadays.
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