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affected by budgetary allocations, private-public sector demand, and level of economic development in China. Thus, the pace of improvements in qualitative indicators in China would depend on the choice of investments and sectoral policies, especially those affecting the development of primary and secondary education in needy areas. There may be little scope for improving quantity but there is room for quality enhancement in schooling, which may infact generate more significant gains in educational attainment. Evidence from several developing countries suggest that the rate of return to improving the quality of schooling is high compared to improving quantity of schooling of a given quality 1.

# **Access to Education and Equity within the system**

**(a) Access to Education.** Gross enrollment rates at the primary level had been higher overtime, but the enrollment growth compared to other levels is slow because the coverage at this level was already extensive for a long time (Fig 3). Slower growth in enrollment in primary education also stems from declines in birth rates since 1970s and a reduction in dropout and repetation rates that reduced the proportion of students in the primary school-age range. In secondary level, gross enrollment rates rose progressively but at the higher level, both enrollment rates and growth remained low based on the overall experience among Asian countries (Table 1, Annex 1). Although populist policies during the Great Leap Forward period created greater higher educational opportunities for working class and peasants, femine and social conflict in the early 1960s thwarted that momentum, and all universities were closed in the early 1970s in favor of several short2 term training courses. Regular enrollments were restored in 1976, but China had already lagged behind Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and other Asian countries in terms of age cohort participation rates in higher education. Moreover, the urban focussed short-cycle courses in vocational universities, supported by municipal governments became more popular than provincial universities' 4-year academic programs that typically lead to prefecture and county level jobs.

**(b) Structural Equity:** In Table 1, the data show the shape of the enrollment pyramid which reflects the access to various levels of education and determines the distribution of educational attainment of a generation. While public expenditure by level of education is another structural dimension of equity as it influences the distribution of resources in the sector. But, structural equity alone does not necessarily imply that people from all socio-economic backgrounds and from all geographic regions have equal access to schooling. Therefore, accessibility to education and educational achievements by different income groups and across all provinces are examined on the basis of both time-series and survey data later.

For empirical evidence in a number of countries see, Jere Behrman and Nancy Birdsall,"The Quality of Schooling: Quantity Alone is Misleading" _American Economic Review,_ 1983. Jere behrman, Donald Ross and Richard Sabot, "Inproving the Quality Versus Increasing Quantity of Schooling" 1992, _Colby College (Mimeo),_ Waterville, MA

> 2 Higher education was perceived very inegalitarian, creating an exclusive elite group. See Julia Kwong,"Chinese Education in Transition: Prelude to the Cultural Revolution" Montreal: McGill Queens University Press, 1979.