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Art. 14 of the 1996 Vocational Education Law defines vocational education ( zhiye jiaoyu ) as the entirety of measures aimed at "job-preparation training, vocational re-training, apprentice training, and extended vocational training of employees (on-the-job training)." In China a differentiated system of professional and work-related competence-based education such as this has only been developed as the result of intensive debates about the technical superiority of the "West" since the mid-19th century. Early…

Developments in the educational policy of the PRC have been controversially followed by international researchers with periodically shifting intensity and interpretations. The dominant approach that has materialized in this regard is the conflict-theoretical interpretation, which can be smoothly linked with the Chinese perspective of a "two-line struggle". According to this perspective, the developments in educational policy follow, at the macro level, disputes within the political leadership co…

Constitutional development in the PRC, highly important for the fields of education and science, has passed through at least five critical stages since 1949. While the ratification of the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of September 29, 1949, represented the PRC's first legislative document with constitutional character, which in five articles formulated significant rights of citizens in terms of educational and research policy, the first Constitution from September 20, 1954, incorporated th…

1. The School System before 1949 In late imperial China, before the first modernizing reforms, basic education was provided by local society rather than by the state. Boys started their training at home under a private tutor, or in a school. Sponsored by their family, lineage, or local community. Students advanced, at their own individual pace, through a standard set of elementary readers such as the Sanzijing (Three Character Classic), the Qianziwen (Thousand Character Text), and the Baijiaxing (Hundred Family Names), and, when they had acquired basic literacy through thes…

The history of private-run educational institutions in China dates back to the earliest periods during which canonic education attempts were made, i.e. back to the late Zhou period (Spring and Autumn period, 770 BCE to 481 BCE). In this regard, a variety of different organizational forms of "scholastic" facilities can be referred to as sishu (translatable as "private teachings" in the widest sense), even though these organizational forms can in turn be divided into other various categories, depending on the social-structural background and religiou…