In the middle and late 1990s, there were more than 500 primary and secondary schools in Changyang Tujia Autonomous County of Hubei Province, including 76 "Hope Primary Schools" built with the support of numerous donations. Within 10 years, the number of primary and secondary schools in the county was reduced to 94, of which 58 were "Hope" primary schools. (December 1, Beijing News)
Corresponding to the withdrawal of more than 400 primary and secondary schools, there is another group of data: up to now, Changyang County still has 17.8 million yuan of debts of "universal education". In other words, Changyang County, as a state-level poverty-stricken county, most of the primary and secondary schools built for the purpose of borrowing money to complete the "universal ninth" program were only temporary "compliance projects", which were "short-lived" when the local "universal ninth" program achieved 99% of primary school enrollment. These hundreds of primary and secondary school buildings (some of which have become pig and duck pens) are full of people from all walks of life, including villagers and donors, who have unlimited love and hope for education.
Over the years, some local governments, when developing basic education, first consider not to maximize the educational effect of the current limited education investment, but to use the money to build primary and secondary school buildings that only play a role in evaluation and inspection, and obtain "bright" data that can be inspected and evaluated by the superior.
Running education well should be the common choice of education organizers and administrators. Let them make this choice, instead of relying on local education sponsors to consciously fulfill their responsibility for education investment and make long-term plans for the development of education, they should establish a system to ensure scientific and democratic education decision-making - how much and how much education should be invested in a place, how and how many schools should be built, This should not be decided only by the relevant officials, but should be reviewed, discussed, and decided by a special agency on the education investment and school building program, and supervise the specific implementation of the government departments.
Education investment, whether taxpayer's tax payment or donor's donation, should have the right to participate in educational decision-making, exclude the public from educational decision-making, and rely on the awareness of local governments to "run education well" to develop education, which will definitely cause problems.
Jiang Li (Shanghai Professor)
