CHINA: Education Begins to Pay Off In The Workers’ State

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Yojana Sharma

HONG KONG, Oct 18 1997 (IPS) - After decades of persecution of Chinese intellectuals, the government is slowly recognising the value of higher education, while economic reforms have thrown many state workers onto the streets, ending the halcyon days of the worker state.

Even as workers face the end of the “iron rice bowl” of cradle- to-grave employment security and welfare, the number of jobs for white-collar workers is growing and their pay and other benefits improving.

For decades in China those with higher education got less pay. Among the state-employed professions, teaching even five years ago ranked third from the bottom. In rural areas, teachers earned ess than an illiterate worker.

Even five years ago official figures showed that a teacher in Beijing was drawing only 250 yuan (30 U.S. dollars) a month, less than a worker’s average salary of 350 yuan (42 dollars).

But figures released recently by China’s State Statistical Bureau showed that since 1990 the income of those employed in the cities is increasingly linked to their educational background and professional skills, reversing the Maoist system of favouring workers over intellectuals.

According to the bureau, in 1990 a university-educated employee would on average be earning 20 per cent more than a worker – if they were lucky. By 1996 this had risen to 70 per cent more than workers.

The new elites are not “model workers” but those with the title of “senior engineer” or its equivalent whose average monthly income is now more than double the average worker.

Although teachers are still among the lowest paid of the educated, the gap between worker and teacher salaries has narrowed considerably in the last five years. Benefits for teachers have also begun to improve as more of them in urban areas are offered improved state housing in a bid to stem a brain drain of teachers into the growing private sector.

By contrast, the reform of loss-making enterprises means that benefits provided by factories which included education, housing and health care are deteriorating for workers.

Improved housing and medical benefits are increasingly being awarded on the basis of academic and professional qualifications as the government has begun to promote staff with higher education as part of drive towards a more meritocratic system.

Previously, promotions and perks in the state sector were obtained through favour and personal connections – a system that was open to abuse and resulted in an inefficient and poorly – qualified state sector.

The improvement in conditions for those with qualifications is so marked that some unqualified cadres were using the power of their government positions to “extort” titles and qualifications from institutions, and even paying for them, according to the Stte ducation Commission in Beijing.

Analysts note that unlike the past, party loyalty is just not enough. Now academic titles and scholarship are what command respect, promotions and improved benefits.

A circular issued by the Commission early this year says titles such as “professor” and “senior researcher” are not valid unless conferred on academic grounds by a recognised institution – a ove designed to clamp down on fraudulent use of academic titles in order to claim increased benefits.

The influence of scholars in particular is set to grow. Chinese leaders have said recently they were determined to promote “scientific democracy” which would improve channels for academic improvements.

The view from the top is that the over-burdened state sector can only be made more efficient if those with education are brought in to find solutions.

“Chinese leaders will establish more channels to collect ideas from academics,” notes Zhang Zimin of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who has acted as an advisor to the politburo.

He adds that as economic reforms continue in China “not only senior leaders need think-tanks, but governments at various levels also require a brains trust to help them design development plans”.

Large proets have also begun to involve experts. Zhang says a team of academics from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was recently dispatched to Chonqing, which is being targeted for development. Another group was tapped to study the socio-economic effects of te Three Gorges Dam on its surrounding area.

While universities are still tightly controlled by the Communist Party, and freedom of speech is stil not the norm for intellectuals, the institutions are able to sell their expertise on the open market to supplement their meagre budgets, making university jobs much more sought after than in the past.

Most importantly, people’s perception has completely changed. In the era of the one child family, parents are determined to lavish the best education available on their only child, pushing the respect for education and the educated to new heights.

The view that education matters is beginning to filter down to children themselves even among the poorest in the country-side who would just a decade ago been proud to say aloud that they wanted to become workers when they left school.

A recent survey of 400 middle and primary school pupils in Hunan province found that 95 per cent were looking to the commercial, financial, cultural sectors for their futures and included scientific research and health care as sough after areas of work.

“Those queried said very candidly there is no future, no status and no money in livelihoods such as worker or peasants cultivating the land,” said the official New China News Agency. “Several added anyone opting for those occupations must have mental problems,” the report said. It found that 44 per cent of respondents called workers or peasants “useless and incapable”.

Many parents who are workers or farmers say “they will spend all the money they have to make sure their offspring do not end up in the same plight”, said the official China Weekend magazine, which conducted the survey.