Provincial and Special Area Differences in Rural Compulsory Education Conditions

This study compares the provincial comparative and absolute differences on 8 indexes for the school-running conditions of compulsory education in 31 rural areas throughout China by means of standard deviation,and discrete factor.It also analyzes the development trends on 10 indexes in 2002 and 2008 among special counties,including old revolutionary base areas,national-level poverty counties,minority counties,border region counties,and those above the 3,000 meters' altitude,and compares their education conditions with the levels of the whole country in the same year.It is found on provincial differences that there is a big difference regarding modernized school-running conditions;that the differences among the middle schools are higher than among the primary schools;that the average areas of dangerous school houses per student of the special counties are larger than the average number throughout the country and they are on increase;and that,apart from those above the 3,000 meters' altitude and those from the minority areas that are lower on 6 and 4 indexes respectively,than the average levels of the whole country,the majority indexes from the remaining areas are better than the nation-wide levels.