This book examines how educational change has progressed in three contrasting areas spread across China since 1990, exploring key issues concerning rural education in poor, rich and minority areas. Of the three areas covered in this book, the first is a rich one near Beijing; the second is in the northwest in Shanxi on the Loess plateau; and the third is in Sichuan on the high plateau leading to Tibet. Central issues include the impact of large-scale demographic change and migration, with increasing numbers of left-behind children in sending areas, and large increases in the numbers of inbound migrants in receiving areas; dramatic increases in the boarding of children in rural areas as a result of rural school merge; changing patterns of teacher deployment; recentralization of responsibilities for school financing; and growing concerns regarding horizontal and vertical inequalities in both access and participation.

This book examines how educational change has progressed in three contrasting areas spread across China since 1990, exploring key issues concerning rural education in poor, rich and minority areas. Of the three areas covered in this book, the first is a rich one near Beijing; the second is in the northwest in Shanxi on the Loess plateau; and the third is in Sichuan on the high plateau leading to Tibet. Central issues include the impact of large-scale demographic change and migration, with increasing numbers of left-behind children in sending areas, and large increases in the numbers of inbound migrants in receiving areas; dramatic increases in the boarding of children in rural areas as a result of rural school merge; changing patterns of teacher deployment; recentralization of responsibilities for school financing; and growing concerns regarding horizontal and vertical inequalities in both access and participation.

For over 30 years now large-scale investment has been made in science education throughout the world and in developing countries in particular. A handful of countries have indeed succeeded in raising their respective population's general level of scientific knowledge, but in other countries, in spite of much effort, the shortage in supply of science-trained students persists, examination achievement levels remain low, and the cost of provision so high that many children all over the world are denied access to effective science teaching.

Whilst the problems of curriculum relevance have been widely discussed, little attention has been paid to the issues confronting the policy-maker and the manager in deciding how much to invest in science education, how to provide value for money or how much science to provide for how many students.

This book addresses the question of how best to plan investment in science at secondary level in developing countries using insights from the studies conducted under a five-year research programme carried out by the International Institute for Educational Planning. The result is an extensive account, commentary and analysis of the main issues that the planners of science education in developing countries are likely to be confronted with when addressing the challenges of the twenty-first century.