CIES Secretariat Florida International University 312 ZEB Miami, FL 33199
Number 150
Impact Assessment of Basic Education in Western Areas Project (BEWAP)
in China
By
Zhiyong Zhu* and Yuhong Du
College of Educational Administration, Beijing Normal University
The research team from College of Educational Administration Beijing Normal University of China, which includes Professor Yuhong Du (the main investigator) and Dr. Youmei Hu, Dr. Pin Du, Dr. Longlong Hou, Dr. Decheng Zhao, and Dr. Zhiyong Zhu, has undertaken the international project of Impact Assessment of Basic Education in Western Areas Project (BEWAP) in China, with loans provided by the World Bank and grants provided by UK Department for International Development, from 2005 through 2009.
“Basic Education in Western Areas Project” is an aid project implemented by the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development in coordination with the education development strategies of the Chinese government. Its objective was to actualize the Chinese government's aim of spreading high level and high quality nine-year compulsory education. The mission of this project is to support and accelerate the actualization of the Chinese government's aim of spreading nine-year compulsory education, and consolidate the results of spreading nine-year compulsory education. The aim of the project development is to spread high quality nine-year compulsory education in poverty-stricken areas of Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan Provinces, Ninxia Hui Autonomous Region and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The activities in this project include construction and renovation of school buildings; supplementing education equipments, books and materials; carrying out trainings for teachers and administrators; and implementing basic education reform research activities, which includes carrying out school development planning, participating teaching reform pilot activities, as well as rural education reform pilot activities in ten counties. The specific benefit indexes that measure the output include the rate of school age children attending school, dropout rate and graduation rate, rate of graduating class students who pass the Chinese language and math courses, rate of qualified teachers, ratio of dilapidated buildings, and the percentage of complete sets of desks and chairs, and the number of books per student. The provinces participating in the project were selected out of a total of 12 provinces and autonomous regions. While selecting the provinces to participate in the project, three main factors were taking into account: first is the situation of poverty-stricken population and economic development, second is the status of spreading nine-year compulsory education, and third is the degree of support for the national compulsory education project and dilapidated building reconstruction project.
Contents of this project pertain to the following areas: First, improve the conditions to run a school, which includes the schools' civil engineering and the purchase and installation of teaching equipments, books, desks and chairs. Our mission for this part of the capital input is to create more opportunities for children of the right age to attend school, to ensure that these children would not be unable to attend school due to a lack of school building, and to build a better educational and school environment for the students.
Second, strengthen administration. This part pertains to: 1) carrying out training for administrators and project staff on the province, county and school level, 2) providing the project counties and villages with computers and carry out computer operation trainings, 3) implementing pilot activities of school development planning,
and 4) establishing a project implementation expert group within each project province (and autonomous region). The tasks of this expert group include providing national level and provincial level projects with advice and services, assisting the project provinces (and autonomous regions) with the implementation of school development planning, participating teaching, and research works on reform topics, as well as monitoring and assessing the implementation of the project.
Third, improve teaching quality to adapt to the reform of basic education course syllabus and teaching materials. This part includes three areas: 1) to carry out special training and continuing education training for the 104,982 elementary and middle school teachers on certifying academic credentials, teaching in two languages, cross teaching, computer teaching, and experimental teaching, 2) to carry out reform pilot activities of participating teaching, including training teachers and implementing participating teaching pilots, and 3) to carry out research projects that promote female and ethnic minority children to attend school.
The aims of the impact assessment of the BEWAP mainly pertain to two areas. One aim is to immediately receive, through impact assessment, information on the progress of implementation and the quality of each activity during the implementation of the project, as to provide services to implement the project more efficiently. The second aim is that, through monitoring before and after the project, systematically, comprehensively, and objectively evaluate the contributions made by all pertinent activities to the project and the effects of the entire project on the improvement in basic education development and education quality of participating areas. From the academic perspective, impact assessment on BEWAP does not only serve the project itself, but also serves as evidence for China to assess the effects of this education investment project through comprehensive and objective data.
The BEWAP is a comparatively integrated education development project. It includes relatively numerous activities. Aims of this project include general indexes of education development, as well as education quality and student development. The impact assessment group recognized the difficulty of assessing each activity of the project, therefore we came to the conclusion that impact assessment should include impact assessment of improvements in conditions to run the school, of school development planning, of participating teaching, and of the effects of the project's activities on spreading nine-year compulsory education and student development. The entire research began in 2005. In 2006, the first large scale sampling and case study took place. In 2007, project counties and schools' database was constructed and process monitoring and assessment on the project's activities were carried out. Two large scale sampling surveys and case studies have been carried out during the second half of 2008. The impact assessment project will be closed in May 2009.
*zzy@bnu.edu.cn
Impact Assessment of Basic Education in Western Areas Project (BEWAP)
in China
Zhiyong Zhu and Yuhong Du
CIES 2009 and Power Dynamics in International Negotiations
José Cossa
Vachel Miller
E. Moore Quinn
Japan and US Teacher Education Students: A cultural exchange
Kensuke Chikamori, Yumiko Ono, Carol Merz Fankel, Fred Hamel, and Jane Williams
Historical Foundations of International Education
Kwabena D. Ofori-Attah
Understanding Student Conceptions of International Experience
Bernhard Streitwieser and Shyanmei Wang
In Memoriam:
T. Neville Postlethwaite,
1933–2009
SIGs
(Click
here to view the procedures to create or join a SIG
and announcements.)
EDITOR'S CORNER
(under construction):
Space designed for
your suggestions, comments, or questions regarding the CIES Newsletter.
CIES BULLETIN
(Information about
conferences and events, awards, recently-published books, positions available, etc.)