Equal education
Feng Jianhua

The private school for rural migrant workers’ children that was established by Zhang Gezhen in Beijing has bitterly survived the many clampdowns on such schools over the past nine years. Zhang’s motive is quite simple: to enable migrant children to afford education in urban areas.
“Migrant schools are what the disadvantaged groups use to save themselves in terms of education during the transition period when the planned economy is giving way to a market economy and the rural population is flocking to cities,” said Zhang.
He came to Beijing for work in 1995. The first thing he did was to find a school for his child. He contacted dozens of public schools, all of which required him to hand over a considerable sum of money called a “patronage fee” because his child did not have a Beijing hukou (registered residence). The least expensive “patronage fee” was two color television sets. Zhang finally bought two TV sets for 8,500 yuan to give to the school and then his child was enrolled.
It was after this terrible experience that Zhang had the idea of starting a school for the children of migrant workers like him. The next year he started the preparatory work and in 1997 his school was founded. In its first year the school had only 53 students but the number rocketed to 500 in the second year. In 1999, Zhang opened branch schools in Fengtai, Daxing and Chaoyang districts. At the peak, Zhang had seven schools. Following Zhang’s footsteps, migrant schools in Beijing sprang up like mushrooms.
But many of these schools are too small, too poorly equipped and don’t have the license granted by the government. By April 2004, the Fengtai District closed down 79 schools, including Zhang’s schools there. To dodge the cleansing, some migrant schools were frequently relocated. One of the schools moved eight times in just three years.
The turning point came in September 2003 when the Beijing Municipal Government ruled that rural children could enjoy the same education treatment as urban children when they go to public schools. After this policy was initiated, the Daxing District promised that public schools there would receive an 80 yuan bonus for each migrant child they accepted.
In 2003, Zhang’s Mingyuan Migrant School gained the first license in Beijing to operate such a school. And in 2004 the school received a special gift from the municipal government-100,000 yuan in funding-which makes Mingyuan the first migrant school in Beijing to receive a government subsidy.
According to statistics from the Beijing education authorities, the city has around 370,000 migrant children, 239 unauthorized schools and a total enrollment of 95,092 students.
Zhang understands the government’s move to close down migrant schools and he thinks such schools will sooner or later cease to exist, given the increasing educational opportunities for rural children provided by public schools. But Zhang still thinks the clampdown is going a bit too far and the best way is to gradually transfer some of the rural children to public schools while rectifying the substandard migrant schools.
Narrowing the gap
China’s rural population accounts for 65 percent of the total, and 150 million out of the total 200 million middle school and primary school students are in rural areas. What’s worse, less than 40 percent of the education funds have been flowing to the countryside.
Qi Tao, head of the Shandong Department of Education, would never have believed the miserable situation in rural education if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.
“Why do rural teachers prepare their lessons on the ground? Why is the classroom empty with nothing left when a class is over? Because the teachers don’t have their own desks, and the emptiness is because the desks and benches are brought to the class by the students themselves,” the educational officer said in describing what he had witnessed when he inspected a rural school in the province.
“The conditions are so tough there for the children, it almost made me cry,” said Qi.
Such poorly equipped schools are not rare in rural China. The terrible rural education situation is related to China’s unbalanced educational policy, which favors urban education. During the period just after the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, when the country was in desperate need of talent to rebuild the country, the Central Government had to put its limited education funds into the key universities in cities to cultivate talent as fast and as much as possible. But 50 years have passed and this policy has not undergone any changes. Instead, it has become more unbalanced in some places.
China’s education expenditures make up only 3 percent of its gross domestic product, equal to the level in the 1980s in Western countries. The insufficient input has long been the bottleneck restricting the country’s education development.
Other statistics from the Ministry of Education show that the average education received by rural people above 15 years of age is seven years, three years less than that of urban residents. Among the rural labor force between the ages of 15 and 65, only 1 percent have had education above the junior college level, 13 percentage points lower than urban residents.
For quite a long time, China’s compulsory education has been handled by local governments. Due to the imbalance in economic development in different regions, education levels differ from region to region and such an imbalance has been enlarged.
The Ministry of Education says three fourths of the illiterate or semi-literate population lives in the countryside in China’s west and in regions populated by minority groups.
Reducing the inequality
Even within the same region, educational resources are distributed unequally. Under the examination-oriented education system, most of the educational resources are allocated to so-called “key schools” and “key classes.”
To control the enrollment in these key schools, a high entry threshold has been set up. If a student fails to reach the cut-off score on the examinations, he has to pay a large sum of money called a “school-choosing fee” in order to enroll. In Chongqing, for example, the fee for the city’s No. 8 Middle School stands at 35,000 yuan, equivalent to the annual income for a working class family. Under such circumstances, some parents have to make use of all their personal connections to send their children to these key schools.
A survey of the equality of a high middle school education in 10 cities showed that the 10 percent of children from families of Party cadres or government officials and middle- or high-level managers account for 42 percent of the student enrollment in key schools. In Beijing, the proportion stands at 57 percent.
The Chinese Government is now working on narrowing the inequality. A series of government documents released in 2006 ruled that the increased educational budget is to be mainly used in rural education. Rural students receiving compulsory education have been exempted from tuition and miscellaneous school fees, and schools are not allowed to be split into “key schools” and “non-key schools.”
In addition, many local governments have launched teacher exchange programs. In October, 52 schools in Shenyang welcomed 1,000 rural teachers, who shared teaching experiences with their urban counterparts and received training from the veteran urban teachers.
In September the Zhengzhou educational bureau in central China began a one-year teacher exchange program in which 646 rural and urban teachers shifted positions. In five years, the city will allow all urban teachers to teach in rural areas for one year, said Si Futing, the city’s education bureau chief.

(The Daily Mail-Beijing Review Articles Exchange Item)


Some are more equal than others
Col (R) M. Zaman Malik

The US Doctrine aims at maintaining its military supremacy as well as, by the dint of this supremacy, arrogates to itself the use of preemptive action. It does not recognise any treaties and obligations and sovereignty of all other states. All this is subject to Bush doctrine. The Bush doctrine, it seems, is buried in Orwellian doublespeak. It is so because it contradicts the actual principles of freedom and democracy. What to say of others, the US wants unquestioning subservience from its allies too. Some, like French President Jacques Chirac, resisted to the extent of endangering French National interests; others like British Prime Minister Tony Blair, aligned themselves in an untenable position with regard to their electorates. It is for a democracy like Britain to be allied with a country determined to act unilaterally. What is the value of allies if you have to act unilaterally; are they mere dummies?
The most powerful country in the world can not afford to be consumed by fear. The Bush doctrine marks a clear cut abdication of US responsibility as a leading nation. The United States can not succeed unless it changes the application of the Bush doctrine.
“Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortations and argue with them in a way that is best. Surely, thy Lord with wisdom knows best who strayed from His way. And He also knows those who are rightly guided.” (Chapter16:125). The Holy Prophet was guided to talk to them with Hikmah which means: knowledge or science; equity or justice; forbearance or clemency; firmness; any discourse which is comforting or agreeable to truth and is in accordance with exigencies of the occasion; gift of prophecy; and prevents or restrains a person from foolish behaviour. “And those, who hearken to their Lord, and observe Prayer, and whose affairs are decided by mutual consultation, and who spend out of what We have provided for them,” (Chapter 42:38).
The verse lays down Shura (Mutual Consultation) as the basic principle which should guide All Human beings in the transaction of their national affairs. This simple word contains the nucleus of a representative form of government of which the West is so proud. The Head of the State is bound to take counsel with representatives of the people when he is to take decision of vital importance; he just can not say that since he has seen this or that in his dream, he must therefore ensure the end of rogue or evil states across the globe. Instead he should seek guidance from the Holy Scripture and consult his Congress so as to ensure that his decision is not based on his dreams but is based on realty. Why the Scriptures should not be followed as well, as far as they are practicable in a given situation? Don’t you see: “And He it is Who has caused the two Seas to flow; this potable and sweet, and that saltish and bitter; and between them He has placed a barrier and an insurmountable partition.”
“How many generations, far greater in prowess, have We destroyed before them! They searched the entire land: but could they find refuge? Surely in this there is lesson for every one who has a heart or gives an ear and is aware. In six days We created the heavens and earth and all that lies between them; nor were We ever touched by fatigue. Bear then with what they say. Glorify your Lord before sunset. Praise Him in the night, and after prostrations.” (Chapter 50:36-40). The most powerful country should take lesson from the exhortations contained in the last Holy Scripture sent to the humankind.
To make the war on terrorism the centerpiece of strategy is an abdication of US responsibility as the leading nation in the world. Preserving peace, assuring economic progress, protecting the environment, and controlling weapons of mass destruction including Israel will, contribute substantially towards fighting terrorism effectively. The US on the other hand, is consumed by fear. US can not succeed without concerning itself with the well being of the entire world. If Americans do that they will really come out with success and will be the greatest beneficiaries. At one stage the Holy Quran states: “The power of disbelievers will gradually decline, and before their final overthrow they would be seized with a consuming fear of growing power of Islam and its ultimate triumph.” And “Your Lord is indeed Compassionate, Merciful.” (Chapter 16:47).
“And they have tried all their designs; but their designs are with Allah. And even though their designs be such as to make the mountains move, they will not succeed. “On the day when the earth will change into another earth, and the heavens too; and they will appear before Allah, the One, the Most Supreme.” (Chapter 14: 46-48). “And after him We said to the children of Israel, Dwell ye in the Promised Land; and when the time of the promise of the latter days comes, We shall bring you together out of various peoples.” (Chapter 17:104). The Holy Bible (Isaiah: 24: 18-20, and Nastrodamus, Mortised Sabot and A.T. Mann, in addition to Science’s own approximate, and very close prediction, which times the axial shift is due to take place. Huge parts of the earth would submerge in the oceans. Present population of five billion will be reduced to five million. “An inquirer inquires concerning the punishment about to befall. The disbelievers, and which none can repel is from Allah, Lord of great ascents. The angels and spirit ascend to him in a day, the measure of which is Fifty thousand years. So, be patient with admirable patience.” (Chapter 70: 1-5).
Another Israeli-Arab war will result in the beginning of the World War Three. This will happen as the 21st Century begins. China’s expansion of the World War Three into a truly global phenomenon, with its nuclear bombing of North America, Europe over the North pole by the use of appropriate ICBMs, simultaneously accompanied by the onwards sweeping march of its land armies across the entire region, reaching upto Mid-East and then English Channel. The Holy Prophet (PBUH), in confirmed Ahadees, spoke truly prophetically of the state of world affairs which would prevail on earth in the last days. “Prayers will be rejected, Carnal desires will be pursued, transgressors will become leaders, and Males will commit adultery with the males and female with the females. Sins will be taken lightly.
What is happening in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in the neighbouring states of Israel, must always be kept in mind. Today is not like yesterday. Unlike yesterday, there exists no UNO and no International Law. Preemptive is the ruler and the Zionism is the ruler. We must not get scattered; we should face it like an iron clad fist as one man, with utmost Unity, Faith and Discipline. The Cataclysmic storm is fast headed to us. Only Unity and holding fast to the rope of God can save us from sinking deep into the unfathomable depths. The day to day, charges and counter charges for nothing must end once for all. The common man must see the evidence of our economic recovery. Utility stores are selling highly low quality of the items of daily use. Besides they need be increased considerably, even if these are to be established on wheels from early morning till 10 PM. We must waste no time in listening to the opposition and the Opposition in turn must listen to the Treasury benches. We are faced with the grimmest hour of our existence. To day, there is No UNO, No Conventions and No International Law. Therefore, would our opposition that is used to living in the past must learn to see things as they are today; not as they were yesterday. We must keep this horrible fact 24 hours on top of our heads. The Officials of the Civil Bureaucracy must stop getting over clever. Enough is enough. If we failed to act with prudence we shall be committing self-immolation, before we are annihilated by the Zionism. Remember “only five million will be left from out of five billion!”


A new lodestar for Africa?
Jonathan Power

THE wheels seem to spin in the sand as we hurtle down the bush track mile after mile from Mtwara, the small town on the Tanzania/Mozambique border. The land is parched, waiting desperately for the rains. In the villages we pass, little thatched houses give way to fields stripped bare of their meagre produce. This is truly one of the poorest backwaters of this very poor country. Then suddenly there is a clearing in it and in the middle, well what is? The set for a James Bond film? Or a secret Tanzanian missile site, perhaps rented out to the encroaching Chinese African empire?
The new president of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, jumps out of the lead car of our convoy and briskly walks up to a white man in a white helmet and grabs his hand. Soon all of us are ensconced in helmets and goggles and led past rows of large window-less steel containers labelled bedroom 1, bedroom 2, washroom and on and on to view this steel pyramid where a fantastical, space-age, machine races down from the top and drives a pipe, deep, deep, into the ground. A burly Canadian tells me it is 28 days on, working twelve hours a day, seven days a week and then a free ticket home for 28 days off.
We have in fact arrived at the saving grace of Tanzania’s mounting energy crisis. In a country that has depended until now on plenty of rain, full lakes and cheap hydro electric power, the recent drought has depleted the lakes, slowed the turbines and knocked nearly two percentage points off Tanzania’s until now rapid rate of growth. But God works in mysterious ways. Underneath these coastal sands a Canadian company, Artumas, last year discovered gas — enough to power the electricity supply of Mtwara for 800 years, and more is likely to be discovered. Before Christmas, Mtwara and nearby Lindi will have the gas flowing into the turbines and the electricity into their streets, factories and homes. The nearby villages will also be lit up — no repeat of the mistakes that have plagued Nigeria’s oil rich delta where the locals have been bypassed.
Later came Nyerere’s former press secretary, Benjamin Mkapa, who set Tanzania on the path to political and economic reform, producing handsome economic growth, a primary school in every village and a more open political system.
The gas field behind us, we dash for three days along dusty, potholed, back roads, deep into up country. In every village, the crowd is waiting, in every third village he stops, climbs on top of his car and using the state-of-the-art sound truck that accompanies us ad libs words of encouragement. He cracks jokes about condoms, makes them laugh furiously and outlines a future that visibly makes their juices run. In the evening we of the convoy bed down where we can, eat together informally and chat to the president. Everything seems possible.