China’s economy is growing at a tremendous and unprecedented speed, and constant adaptation and innovative problem solving are necessary to successfully face the challenges that result from such change. One of the greatest challenges, and one for which such adaptation is so crucial for continued economic success, is education. The book Enhancing China’s Competitiveness Through Lifelong Learning, which was launched at World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC, on September 17, explained how the educational system must be reformed for China to remain competitive in today’s knowledge economy.
Rakesh Nangia, Acting Vice President of the World Bank Institute, introduced the event, noting that many issues currently at stake in China are largely ignored due to China’s success in other spheres. Joy Phumaphi, Vice President of the Bank’s Human Development Network, introduced the panel of speakers. She said that the issues covered in the book are universal and relevant to many other countries seeking to make improvement in their education systems. Most importantly though, she stressed the lessons of sustainability contained in the book, which was produced at the request of the Chinese government in collaboration with the Bank.
Carl J. Dahlman, Professor at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, was the first presenter and one of the authors of the book. Dahlman explained the current context in which China must consider educational reform: the incredible size of the economy, its very rapid growth, and a world where knowledge, human resources, and the ability to innovate are very important. Knowledge-intensive services—that is, education and consulting—are now a bigger share of the global gross domestic product (GDP) than manufacturing services, he explained. This, Dahlman said, is what the knowledge economy is all about.
Dahlman explained that investments in manufacturing, rather than knowledge-intensive services remain much higher in China. Additionally, the service sector, which is also knowledge intensive, is not very well developed, and the country remains very dependent on factor inputs for its dramatic growth. On the other hand, the country has the largest amount of students currently enrolled in higher education in the world, and yet there are rising tuitions in public universities to accommodate the rapid expansion of the system.
Dahlman continued by pointing out that a great challenge for China is the need to constantly upgrade and retrain the massive amount of workers already in the workforce. Some workers have already completed their education and need to be retrained, and there is also a huge population moving from rural to urban areas in need of training. It is an issue of continuous learning, Dahlman said, for which China must effectively exploit information technology.
In a country where until recently the government was the sole provider of education, Dahlman stressed it is important to have multiple pathways to learning, with multiple providers. The book argues that the government’s role must now become that of the architect and the manager-coordinator of this very complicated system, with a focus on improving the quality of education. Another major issue is that of financing education. Dahlman emphasized the need to encourage the increase in private financing to develop a loan market for students, and eventually develop a whole capital market for education. He also pointed out that China is one of the world’s leaders in distance education—an area where the country has tremendous potential. Ultimately, he said, China is becoming a big player, but facing many challenges. Education and training have the potential to become areas of strength for China, and serve as a model for other developing countries.
Douglas Zhihua Zeng, an economist at the World Bank Institute who also coauthored the book, gave the second presentation. He emphasized the issue of financing education, pointing out that more money needs to be poured into basic education while also allowing more private investment in tertiary education, so that competition can bring about a drop in tuition. Zeng also talked about the need to improve and increase the framework for student loans.
Shuilin Wang, Senior Economist of the Development Economics (DEC) unit of the Bank and also coauthor of the book, added some footnotes to the preceding presentations. He said the book was a true product of the collaboration between the Bank and the Chinese government, and that it received very good feedback from the Chinese government. He mentioned how many of China’s issues are country specific due to the sheer size of the country, which brings about unique challenges. On other issues, he said, it is appropriate to benchmark Chinese progress against Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, as they have been doing.
Emmanuel Jimenez, Sector Director at the Bank, offered his comments and critiques to the book and presentations. He mentioned that among the issues he would have liked to see more of were the issues of nonformal adult education, training in firms, and early child development education. Jimenez also pointed out that China lacks a culture of monitoring and evaluation, which is especially important in training.
Ruth Kagia, also a Sector Director at the Bank, offered her comments. She said the book establishes an important framework for other countries, and emphasized the importance of the lifelong learning concept.
In the question and answer session, audience members asked if there was a concerted effort or strategy in the Chinese government to modify the quality of skills in education, and not just the quantity. Other questions covered the aspects of China’s growth model and its application to other countries and whether the amount of students studying abroad indicates a weakness in the Chinese educational system.
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