analysis, and, after the completion of the socialist transformation, has
committed itself to opposing the bourgeoisie and narrowing the gap between the workers and the peasants. Because of the politics of people's ownership and the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the relatively homogeneous economic
system, as well as the conservative egalitarianism of the household registration system, the personnel system, and the distribution system, the stratification of society was not obvious
and there was not much difference between the various interest groups, which were basically categorized into the three major classes of workers, peasants, and cadres. Although the Cultural Revolution
also reintroduced the class struggle and the division of social strata by family composition, artificially causing abnormal social struggle movements and seriously affecting
people's social life and social relations, on the whole, the distribution of social resources was still relatively even, and social stratification was still relatively simple
.
Since the opening and reform, under the guidance of the Party's guidelines and policies, the reform of the economic system has transformed the single ownership system to a variety of ownership systems and
existed, separating ownership and management, and dramatically changing the structure of the social occupation, while the reform of the political system has facilitated the separation of government
enterprises, and the personnel and household registration system has been more lenient, with the widespread use of the recruitment system and the contractual system, which has accelerated the pace of social mobility. Social mobility, especially
distribution system "big pot rice" was broken, members of the community in the economic income, labor insurance benefits, the gap widened, social differentiation
clearer, produced a number of the first rich and ultra-rich, but also appeared in a number of unemployed and blind, the social stratification is more and more complex.
The working class in cities and towns, due to the different ownership systems and changes in the mode of operation, were placed in state-run enterprises, collective enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises
enterprises, joint ventures and private enterprises. The new mode of production has given rise to new divisions of labor and occupations, such as managers, brokers,
managers, hirers, entrepreneurs, and contractors. Under the conditions of weakening of unit boundaries and diversification of distribution, the
social status of urban workers became more rapidly differentiated. Rural peasants also due to the responsibility system, the contracting system and the rise of township and village enterprises, a new
class differentiation, in addition to the original collective peasants and individual peasants, as well as township and village enterprises, contractors, operators, managers,
hirers, individual industrial and commercial laborers, cadres and technicians, etc., a variety of business so that the return on labor and the way of life of the differences
. All workers, due to the nature of labor and rely on different conditions, so that they are in the social status, salary income, welfare treatment
遇遇和生活方式 on the differences, the development of their own future is also very different, also broke the original cadres, workers,
peasants three-tiered structure of the pattern, which formed the current state of diversification of social stratification in our country.
We believe that in the transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society, the social stratification in China includes the stratification of classes and the diversification of classes
. Class stratification refers to the division of existing classes into several levels
of groups based on differences in socio-economic status, such as the working class, which is divided into several interest groups due to differences in the division of labor and positions, which are not purely
unified political interests, but also include a number of economic and social interests. Class diversification refers to the gradual differentiation of the whole society
to a variety of social characteristics of different groups, the same society but due to the amount and way of access to social resources, so that the members of the society
in the political, economic, social prestige and various opportunities for advancement in the display of different characteristics. In other words, social stratification
can develop both from within classes and from differentiation between classes. The combination of the Marxist methodology of class
analysis and class analysis means that we should pay attention to the differences between the class structure and the stratum structure of society, and neither confuse
the nature of class and stratum, nor replace class analysis with stratum analysis. At present our country is still in the primary stage of socialism
, as opposing classes no longer exist, while non-hostile class differences still exist, and there are even exploitative classes using capital
classes, who play a certain role as one of the economic components of socialism, but are all subject to the constraints of the socialist system and in line with the social characteristics of the primary stage, and do not have the hostility and hierarchical. The other classes also get along equally under the leadership of the working class and
complement each other. Class division in China is mainly a division of relative differences in the social characteristics of the members of society, which belongs to non-class
stratification, and the criteria for division are also pluralistic, such as regional, ownership, economic income, occupation, and way of life.
The difference in social status between groups divided by
a certain standard can be regarded as a class difference.
In China, under the guarantee of the socialist system, the class difference in social stratification is not serious, while the class difference is prominent in the
transition period of society. Although it is difficult to draw the line of class, the sequence of different levels of social status constituted by the differences in political treatment, social prestige and
promotion opportunities of social members is more obvious than before the reform and opening up, as the same level of
social members in the real conditions of the various interests and opportunities are close to each other, while different levels of social members have more and more obvious
differences. Especially with the distribution of social distribution according to the requirements of production, people's sources of income and differences will be more and more, but also make their
lifestyle changes. Here we focus on the differences in the educational opportunities of different social classes under the current conditions, and the indicators for dividing the different
classes are mainly based on the four dimensions of residence in urban and rural areas, practicing units, occupational positions and economic incomes.
The education opportunity is mainly analyzed according to the connotation referred to by the sociology of education, and the impact of the current changes in social stratification on
education equity in China is examined from a macro point of view.
First of all, the difference between the living conditions of urban and rural residents is a feature of China's dualistic social structure, which is also the most serious manifestation of the inequality of educational opportunities between urban and rural residents
. Due to the historical conditions of our country, the difference between urban and rural areas has always been relatively serious. Since the reform and opening up, the living standards of both urban and rural residents
have improved significantly, but the difference in living conditions is still significant. Especially in the education policy orientation,
Long favored the priority development of urban education, resulting in education investment and teacher conditions tilted situation, rural education whether
In the conditions of schooling, teaching level, or in the education opportunities and education investment are far behind the city. According to the 1996 population
sample survey, China's existing 1.224 billion people, about 70% of the population living in rural areas, while the country's education spending is mainly invested in the city,
most of the education of the rural areas to solve the problem of self-funding, the allocation of teachers willing to go to the rural areas of all levels of teacher training graduates have been relatively small, the rural
village a large number of use of private teachers and substitute teachers, teaching equipment and teaching conditions have long been in the rural areas, and the teachers have been in the rural areas. Teaching equipment and teachers' conditions have long been substandard. According to 1990
statistics, the area of dangerous buildings in the country's schools was 13.12 million square meters, with rural areas accounting for 86 percent of the total; the teacher-student ratio of primary and secondary school students nationwide was 14.6:
1 and 22:1, while rural areas reached 18:1 and 25:1, and 30.4 percent of the teachers were privately run; the qualification rate of urban secondary school equipment was
42.5 percent, with 21 books per capita, while rural secondary schools had 21 books per capita, while rural secondary schools had 30.4 percent of the total. The equipment qualification rate of urban secondary schools is
42.5 percent, and the books per capita is 21, while the books per capita in rural secondary schools are only 17.6 percent and 3.6 respectively. Of the 180 million illiterate and semi-literate people in China, 90 percent are in the rural areas, and the rural areas are not as good as the cities in terms of enrollment and consolidation rate of students, as well as the rate of popularization of compulsory education (Note: Guo Jiyan, ed. December, 1996 edition.) The rural areas are not as good as the urban areas (Note: Guo Jiyan, ed.
There are many reasons for the inequality of educational opportunities between urban and rural areas, the main one being that China's dual economic and social structure has created two distinct identity groups of urban and rural residents
, whose different production and lifestyles, and the obvious difference in the amount and manner of access to social resources, have made the rural population's social status significantly lower than that of the urban population, and this, coupled with the fact that the country's economy has a weaker base and more favorable policies, has led to an increase in the number of people living in rural areas.
The weaker base and policy tilt
and other factors, naturally and artificially formed the urban-rural differences in educational opportunities, both in the basis of educational conditions, or in the educational
Education of ideological concepts and levels of urban and rural disparities is very large, to face up to the problem, and to take the appropriate policies and methods of adjustment,
in order to promote the fairness of the education of the whole society and sustained development.
Secondly, the nature of the work unit of urban residents is one of the more special criteria in China's social stratification, which still affects the living conditions of residents
and the educational opportunities of their children. Before the opening up and reforms, China was basically a single social organization
structure dominated by public ownership, and the nature of the unit in which a member of society worked had little to do with the difference in the amount of social resources an individual had access to, and thus the phenomenon of social inequality
was relatively insignificant. After the opening up and reforms, China gradually formed a unit system in which a variety of ownership systems coexisted with the national ownership system as the mainstay, and many policies and regulations differentiated around the nature of the unit, so that the nature of the unit centrally reflected the interests of society and the individual
relationships, and members of the community connected with the community through the unit to obtain their own deserved social status and benefits. Therefore, the social
function of the unit has been gradually strengthened and become a basis for social stratification. The differences in the forms and real
quality benefits obtained by members of society in different units have also become obvious. According to statistics, among the 273 million enterprise workers in China in 1993, the workers of state-owned enterprises accounted for about 30
percent, the workers of collective enterprises accounted for about 13 per cent, the workers of township and village enterprises accounted for about 41 per cent, the workers of individual and private enterprises accounted for 4 per cent, and the workers of three-funded enterprises accounted for about
11 per cent (Note: "China's social status and social benefits in units"). 11 percent (Note: China Statistical Abstract (1994), China Statistics Press, 1994 ed. pp. 21-71.)
The average annual income of workers in all
ownership units is also gradually pulling apart, with the difference in wages between state-owned, collective and other economic units being 1:0.7
3:1.41, of which workers in individually privately-owned and three-capital enterprises earn about twice as much as workers in publicly-owned enterprises, and the annual incomes of individually owned
individually-owned industrial and commercial tenants are even two to three times higher than those of workers in the various enterprises. At present, the formation of different nature of the unit employees
class in our country is quite common, representing the division of the working class, the working class is expanding the hierarchical differences, and his
their children's educational opportunities are also different, in some schools, some teachers from the past discrimination against the children of the individual households to the present
in favor of the more, only because of the profitability of it.
With the legalization of multiple ownerships and multiple economic incomes, new social inequalities
will gradually intensify, and the problem of inequality in education will become more and more serious.
Once again, the widening disparity in family income has led to different ways of spending on education for different classes, creating new inequities in education.
From the National Bureau of Statistics Urban Survey Team in 1995, a survey showed that: China's urban families by annual income, 5,000 yuan of
poor families accounted for 3.8% of the total family, 5,000-10,000 yuan of subsistence families accounted for 36.1%, 1-3 million yuan of well-off families accounted for
50.1 percent of the total, 8 percent of the affluent families with 30,000-100,000 yuan, and 1 percent of the rich families with more than 100,000 yuan, which shows that the class structure of our country has changed dramatically, but there are still about 40 percent of the families living in difficulty. On the other hand, the country's price reforms and
reforms in the school enrollment fee system have put new pressure on parents with low family incomes to pay for their children's schooling
. In the past, children of employees of state-owned enterprises had enterprise-run schools or certain subsidies, but now there are fewer such preferences, and the living allowances of laid-off workers are so small that it is difficult to continue to support even their children's educational expenses, according to statistics for the fall of 1992, the national average payment for primary, junior
middle, and senior high school students was about 200, 240, and 400 yuan (Note: The Blue Book of China Social Development, Yunnan
Middle and Senior High Schools, 1992). Blue Book of Chinese Social Development," Yunnan
People's Publishing House, 1996 edition, p. 206). In addition, some schools violate state regulations by charging fees under various pretexts, and some schools charge various fees in the name of selecting students, choosing students, sponsoring students, etc. For example, some primary and secondary schools in Guangzhou recruit primary and secondary students at a sponsorship fee of 5-10 yuan per year, which is affordable for the non-common working class, and some of these schools are called "aristocratic schools". Some of the private for-profit schools
schools with "aristocratic schools" to charge 15-30 million per person education reserve to the community enrollment, the school's equipment and teachers and environmental conditions are extremely superior, although
this is reasonable and feasible with a variety of educational needs to meet, but with the spirit of compulsory education and educational fairness in our country. spirit of compulsory education and educational equity.
Competition in ordinary schools also loses some of its fairness because of economic disparities, if the cost of after-school tutoring or tutoring gets
higher and higher, and school supplies and materials become more and more expensive, increasing from 64 yuan per capita per family in 1992 to 126 yuan per capita per family in 1994 (Note: "China Statistical Abstract (1995)", China Statistical Press, 1995 edition). ", China Statistics Press, 1995 edition, p. 54).
This has made many low-income parents feel overwhelmed and confused about their children's education, which is a new inequality of opportunity in education
that deserves attention.
Finally, the widening of the gap between sectors and positions has artificially exacerbated inequality of opportunity in education. Open reform
Before the reform, China's social structure is relatively simple and uniform, the planned economy and centralized politics make the three major social classes relatively small differences
, cadres, workers, farmers in their respective trades at the level of the position of income, prestige, power and other aspects of the basic same, with the opening
The reform of open emphasizes the play of human resources in the personnel and labor system, change the With the reform of liberalization emphasizing the role of human resources, the personnel and labor system to change the system of lifelong employment, the wage distribution system to
break the "big pot" of egalitarianism, further reflecting the principle of distribution according to work, and promote the social competition and mobility of talent, widening the gap between
individual labor income, which is in line with the needs of social development and the law. Since the introduction of the "national civil service system", the original
cadre status has been replaced by national civil servants and business managers, who are an important independent class in the stratification of society,
this class is also divided into a number of occupations by the power of the occupation, position, income, prestige and other different levels, different posts The different positions imply different status, which is reflected in their children's educational opportunities are also different, in the market competition conditions, the privileges owned by the position also
for the convenience of their children's education, so some of the power to get a degree, some of the power to get better educational conditions, some of the power to seek
superior educational results and the way out of the education, so that educational equity by the power to interfere. The difference in industry and occupation also affects the difference in family economic
conditions, indirectly affecting the children's access to education, low-position parents struggling to make ends meet, can only choose for their children to facilitate
industrial education conditions or early completion of education, parents in middle-level positions, but also each take advantage of the characteristics and strengths of the industry and occupation, to seek to
this kind of conditions of the children's education in a proper way. The first is that the children's education is not a matter of the same kind as the children's. In this way, the factor of position gradually penetrates into the field of education, and there is
an abnormal tug-of-war over educational opportunities, which distorts the ideal of fairness in education to a certain extent.
In addition, some professions do not have certain procedures for promotion and increment, and over-emphasize the factor of occupational position, so that the distribution of social resources
is purely based on the position of the different or wider grades, which has given rise to a new bureaucracy and profit-taking class, such as the leadership of some key government departments
, a variety of benefits and abnormal income has been 10 times or dozens of times more than the salary of its own position. The average monthly income of Chinese staff of some three-funded enterprises or
leaders of state-run enterprises is higher than the annual paychecks of their employees. At present, about 4.4 million people in the country have an average annual income
of more than 30,000 yuan, and 2 million people own more than one million yuan of property, while the country's poor population is about 80 million, 20 million of whom are
living in towns and cities with a monthly income of less than 103 yuan. (Note: Lu Xueyi edited Chinese Society in the 21st Century, Yunnan People's Publishing House
1996 edition, p. 156.) . Family incomes in the lower middle class accounted for 63.4 percent of the total, and the Gini coefficient, which reflects the distribution of society, also increased to
0.44 in 1995, reaching a wide gap. Such a stark contrast in figures makes us see that the disparity between the rich and the poor in society is getting
greater and greater, and this aspect of the factor is a serious test for the equity of education in China.
In addition to the situation analyzed above, the situation of social stratification in China also has
an indirect impact on regional educational equity and gender educational equity. On the one hand, the diversification of social stratification can help to adjust the unequal educational opportunities in the light of regional economic and social conditions, meet the increasing diversified educational needs, eliminate the traditional feudal concept of hereditary education and the backward concept of male superiority and female inferiority, and motivate parents of all classes to strive for the equalization of educational opportunities in the regions and genders. On the other hand, the phenomenon of social differentiation in some regions, especially in backward and poor regions, will exacerbate the inequality of educational opportunities within regions or between genders, so that the poor people will give up or lose the educational opportunities for their children, especially girls, because of their inability to cope with the cost of
education. Some recent surveys and statistics illustrate this concern: of the 100 million illiterate people in China, two-thirds are women, of the two million children of school age who are not enrolled in school, two-thirds are women, and of the nearly three million children who are not enrolled in school and drop out, two-thirds are girls (Note: Guangming Daily, March 22, 1995), most of whom are women who live in the poor areas. poverty-stricken areas. In addition, there are obvious inequalities in women's access to schooling, educational attainment, educational process, and career choice, and the more economically backward the region, the wider the gender gap. It is not that our education system has a tendency to discriminate against poor
people or women, but that our traditional concepts and parents' consciousness are problematic, and also determined by the reality of social conditions
Social stratification is therefore an indirect factor that affects the regional and gender equity in education, and further study of these situations can only
provide more basis for the educational equity project that adapts to the changes in social stratification in our country. Equity project to provide more basis and measures.
Since the opening and reform, China's social stratification has become more and more complex, and many of the new social stratification situations have positive
significance. With the transformation of the social structure, the mode of social stratification based on hereditary status will gradually be replaced by the mode of stratification based on the members' own
academics and occupations, and this transformation will make people have a new quest for educational equity. The new pursuit of the elimination of the current
stage of social stratification complexity of the negative impact on educational equity, as well as to solve a series of contradictory issues of educational interests is to help
The criteria for stratification of diversified and personalized to change the traditional conservative tendency of feudal hereditary status, especially members of the community
Power, income, prestige and opportunities are increasingly dependent on the individual's
Power, income, prestige and opportunities. degree of education and hard work, making social mobility more rational
sexistent, the close relationship between education and personal social status, reflecting the changes in the social structure of a more rational and benign development, and social
stratification of the impact on educational equity, but also only in the conditions of a reasonable stratification is meaningful, which allows the whole society to pay attention to education,
concerned about the fairness of the opportunity for education issues and promote normal social mobility. We study the impact of social stratification on education, mainly
for the new situation of social stratification on the issue of fairness in education direct role, many of which are negative. In short, China's current social
social stratification situation on the impact of educational equity is objective, we should pay enough attention and serious research, we also hope that
educators in the spirit of the spirit of fairness in education, to strengthen the changes in social stratification in China's educational countermeasures to study, to improve the education system
degree to safeguard the fairness of education, and to promote China's 21st century-oriented education and the sustainable development of society.