China investing in education to achieve sustainable development

Problems such as low wages for workers are closely linked to education in China, says economist Lingxu Zhang, coordinator of a rural education program.

By Washington Castilhos in Rio de Janeiro

Agência FAPESP – Although it still isn’t overcoming its greatest challenges, such as greenhouse gas emissions, environmental damage and an aging population (over 25% of all Chinese will be over 65 years old by 2050), China is investing in education to achieve sustainable development and eradicate poverty. 

In its poorest regions, such as the rural zone in Northwestern China, almost 40% of children don’t attend school. The Chinese government has been investing in intervention projects to understand why and to create possible solutions.

One example is the Rural Education Action Project (REAP), coordinated by economist Lingxu Zhang, professor and adjunct director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy. 

“When we discovered that students in poor rural areas were dropping out of school, we decided to find out what could be causing the problem,” Zhang said, at the 7th Conference and General Assembly of the Global Network of Science Academies (IAP), an event organized by the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in Rio de Janeiro. 

At first, the project began to offer financial help so that parents would keep their children in school. School dropout rates were lower among families that received the aid—if maintained—than in those that didn’t receive any help. The main reason for leaving school, according to Zhang, was economic pressure. 

“We saw that the problem had to do with the area the families lived in,” Zhang told Agência FAPESP. “Farming families would take their children out of school to work on the farms. In China today, 60% of the people in rural areas work on small farms with manual labor and small plots of land.” 

She claims that the country needs to improve its agricultural productivity. “Agrarian science needs to be better developed. If we don’t improve education, we won’t be able to develop agricultural technology. China won’t have sustainable development if it doesn’t have well-educated people,” said the economist, recalling that some 20% of the Chinese population lives below the poverty line. 

Another fact discovered by the project was that one-third of the students at the 30 schools studied suffered from anemia as a result of school lunches being based exclusively on grains or noodles with few vegetables or meat (in other words, without vitamins or protein). 

“We brought in doctors to examine the children and found that anemia rates were high, which meant they didn’t do well in school. So we began to supply them with vitamin supplements,” Zhang said. She is also a researcher at the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is a member of the IAP.

After the nutrition program was set up, the situation was reversed. “It was the nation’s first anemia intervention. We saw how the vitamins affected the students by the way their school performance improved. The better the education, the greater their chances of getting better jobs and salaries,” she said. 

Famous for the low wages paid to its workers, making the country attractive to foreign industry, China seems to be changing after a series of labor conflicts at large multinationals operating inside the country. Some of these companies are now moving to other nations such as India and Vietnam, but the result in China is higher wages, said Zhang. 

There is also a difference between the young rural migrant workers coming onto the job market today and those from previous generations. Better educated and more informed, they demand better working conditions and higher salaries. 

All this has led to a two-sided debate between those who believe in the end of the era of cheap labor and those who still believe there is a long way to go before China loses its fame as a country of poorly paid workers. 

According to Zhang, the era of low salaries is ending in China, although she notes that untrained individuals receive less than US$ 1.20 per hour.

“In order for the hourly wage to reach an average of US$ 10, for example, something has to be done in education. This is one of our greatest challenges, along with climate and environmental issues. But China can overcome it,” she said. 

Strengthening academic action

The theme of the 7th IAP Conference and Assembly was “Science for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development”. The meeting brought together over 130 scientists from diverse countries, at the Rio Othon Palace Hotel on Copacabana Beach on February 25th and 26th.  

The objective of the event, which is held every three years and has now been held for the first time in South America, is to explore how science can contribute to overcoming global challenges.

On February, FAPESP was visited by a delegation of members from an IAP and InterAcademy Council (IAC) consulting committee called the Development Advisory Committee (DAC).

The DAC has two co-chairs: Francisco Ayala, from the University of California at Irvine, and Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, FAPESP’s scientific director, who presided over the meeting. 

“DAC’s objective is to help the IAC and the IAP put together a fundraising strategy for the associations’ activities, which are science-based consulting activities for internationally relevant issues,” said Brito Cruz.