HIgher Education In China and One Child policy

[spunkgal]

Im doing a project on this topic and im wondering if Chinese students have any take on this...do you think that one child policy contributed to access to higher education in china? If not, what other factors has influeced it?

[kellyorange]

First, one child policy is not a very accurate expression, for in many areas, esp in the countryside, many families could have two children. Actually, one of my roommates in the university has a sister. Moreover, if both parents are the only child in their respective family, a second child is allowd.

as to the access to higher education, the main reason is that the government's increasing investment in higher education. In China, the enrollment plan of universities is under control of the government, so the increasing number of access to higher education is actually a government behavior.

However, compared to the large number of high school students, the access to higher education is still limited and the competition in gaokao(college entrance examination) is extremly fierce. So even one-child policy may improve some families' financial situation and give them more chances to pursue further study, considering the large demand for higher education, there will always be more than enough families which can afford it.

Furthermore, Chinese have a traditional belief in the importance of education, so many families would have their children go to university despite financial problems. One-child policy only makes the whole family focus more on the only child--that is, if a family have three children, than maybe one university student out of three will be fine, so the other two don't neccessarily have to study very well, but now the only child is under more pressure to carry out the family hope:(

[spunkgal]

oh I see...yups i do know about variations in policy implementation in china.but is the one child policy an official countrywide policy in the first place?cos there have been readings, some stating that its official while the others state that its an unofficial plan by the government to control the population.well,but this one child policy has also contributed to a large extent, in allowing the child greater access to higher education, in terms of capital and the parents' interest for the child to excel right?