EDUCATION IN CHINA

Chapter 5 – Jiangsu
children of migrant workers were new entrants to
different school levels in Jiangsu province. Jiangsu
province takes up to 12.5% of the entire nation’s migrant
workers. Among the 1.5 million migrant children living in
Jiangsu, 730 000 or nearly 49% are from other provinces.
There are nearly 1.2 million migrant students in primary
schools in the province, of which about 600 000 or 51%
are from other provinces. Nearly 350 000 of these migrant
students are in middle school, of which more than
130 000 or just under 40% are from other provinces. In
Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Nanjing, Zhenjiang and other
southern Jiangsu cities, there are higher rates of migrant
children. The above five cities have a little over 1 million
students, or 70% of the total number. Migrant student
enrolment rate can reach as high as 99%, with 85% of
students studying in public schools. These figures are
higher than the national average.
Providing a well balanced curriculum
HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM REFORM
Jiangsu’s high school curriculum reform is a key part
of the province’s broader curriculum reform efforts.
These reforms provide academic support and structure
that is stronger than the support and structure that
was offered traditionally at schools, which creates a
well-balanced curriculum for students. The province
has 576 high schools with a total of just over 1 million
students, including 223 three-star schools and 247 fourstar
schools. 1 In 2005, Jiangsu was among the first
provinces in China to implement these new curriculum
and academic structure changes. Jiangsu presented the
Chinese central government with a curriculum reform
implementation plan, curriculum management guidance,
credit management guidance, school-based curriculum
guidance, educational administration software with
instructions and other relevant supporting documents.
The provincial government also issued guidance
documents on 14 courses. These documents include
suggestions about teaching and school-based evaluation,
class and credit arrangements, elective module guidance
and other relevant guidance documents.
Since introducing these curriculum reforms, provincial
educators and academics have embraced the new
concepts, which have proven to be very popular.
Evaluations and observations and implementations of
the reforms have seen favourable changes to the quality
of teaching and teaching methods.
Note
1. This is according to a system that Jiangsu has established to evaluate schools on a scale of 1 to 5 according to four
criteria: quality of teachers and facilities, quality of management, quality of education in terms of developing the whole
student and student achievement. Stars are awarded by a committee of government officials and external experts.
References
Jiangsu Bureau of Education (2012). “ 关 于 进 一 步 推 进 义 务 教 育 学 校 教 师 和 校 长 流 动 工 作 的 意 见 ”[Opinions on Further
Promoting the Transition of Teachers and Principals in Compulsory Education Schools], www.ec.js.edu.cn/art/2013/10/30/
art_10339_137679.html (accessed on September 2015).
National Bureau of Statistics of China (2014), China Statistical Yearbook, China Statistics Press, Beijing, www.stats.gov.cn/
tjsj/ndsj/2014/indexeh.htm (accessed on July 2015).
People’s Daily (2015). “ 江 苏 省 外 来 务 工 人 员 随 迁 子 女 入 学 率 达 99%”[For Migrant Workers in Jiangsu Province, Their
Children’s Enrolment Rate reached 99%], http://edu.people.com.cn/n/2015/0928/c367001-27643754.html (accessed on
September 2015).
EDUCATION IN CHINA: A SNAPSHOT © OECD 2016 – 49