Snapshots of Chinese Classrooms Illustrate Disparities

In rural China today, only 0.2% have a college education. Since 1980, China has sustained the highest rate of growth in per-capita income in the world. From 1981 to 2001, the number of poor people living on less than $1 per day was reduced from 634 million to 211 million. The poverty problem, however, has not been solved. In 2005, a delegation of professional educators, mostly from higher education, participated in an educational exchange in China through People to People International. The goal of the delegation trip was to engage in a dialogue comparing the U.S. and Chinese education systems. In this article, the authors discuss their visit to China, which highlights the poverty, isolation, and diversity that challenge one of the world's largest educational systems. Snapshots of three Chinese schools that illustrate disparities are presented. (Contains 6 notes.)