Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2017, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (3): 131-162.

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School Merging, Family Background and Opportunities of Education Attainment

PAN Guanghui   

  1. Department of Sociology, East China Normal University
  • Online:2017-05-20 Published:2017-05-20

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Abstract:

The school merging process,begun in the mid 1990s, aimed at optimizing the distribution of resources and improving the quality of compulsory education. This process had an significant influence on educational opportunities for rural children. Due to the decrease in education resources, this paper aims to answer how the family background of some students influence educational opportunities. In this paper,I divide family background into three kinds of capital: cultural, economic, and political capital. Using panel resampling cases taken from the China Family Panel Survey (CFPS) in 2010 to 2012,and by reviewing the educational experiences of rural students from primary school to graduation from junior high school, I use the Cox model to establish a “drop-out model” and use a logistic model and linear probability model to establish the “high school entrance-model”. I obtained the following results: family background will always be a crucial factor for educational opportunities; the risk of school drop-out surprisingly declined in the beginning years of the school merging process; parents' capital has played a more important role after school merging. With the response to the policy change from families, the negative effects of the policy have been denied, or remedies have been postponed. The policy change encourages rural families to invest actively in the education of their desendant. Among the three categories of capital, investments in cultural capital have the biggest effect, increasing survival time and educational opportunities. I hold the view that the rebirth of education that can be observed on the macro scale is mirrored by the micro choices of the family on the institutional level.

Key words: family background, opportunity of school attainment, school merging policy, policy change