A Shrinking China Needs to Tap Its Best Source of Prosperity
Better educational opportunities for its rural population may not drive a baby boom, but they will ensure that the country can thrive with the people it has.
Rural students have fewer opportunities for college.
Photographer: Wang He/Getty Images AsiaPacChina's population is officially shrinking and the government is scrambling. In recent days, local governments have announced pro-natalist policies such as improved childcare subsidies. Those are positive steps, but if China is truly serious about tackling its demographic crunch, it should focus on reforming its underfunded, unequal and underperforming education system, especially in rural communities. Such a reform effort is unlikely to boost population in the short term, if ever. But it will produce a better, more productive workforce tuned to an aging Chinese future.
China's educational deficiencies may come as a surprise. After all, it has built a reputation as a global education leader that other countries, including in the West, seek to emulate. There’s good reason. Investments in education have produced some of modern China’s most impressive accomplishments. In 1950, only 20% of the country was literate; by 2001, 85% could read and write. As China's wealth grew, so, too, did its educational ambitions. For example, pre-school before 1990 was a privilege largely enjoyed by urban elite who could afford private tuition. Thanks to policy planning and investments dating back to the 1980s, 95% of Chinese children were attending pre-school by 2015.