Nurul Afiqah Binte Rashid_A0160361R_C01_Problem Solution Essay_First Draft

Nowadays, almost anything can be bought and this causes ubiquitous

commodification to occur in many areas, for example, education. (The
Commodification of Everything, n.d.). A fast evolution is undergoing from
free education to a fee-based system due to marketability in education
and the problem is that the massive, increasing cost of study is taking a
heavy toll on poorer students, especially in developing countries such as
China (Yang, 2006). Since education is compulsory in China, as declared in
The Compulsory Education Law of the Peoples Republic of China (Michael,
2016), this makes it harder for the citizens to avoid the problem of
increasing education fees inflicted by the commercialization of education.
This essay will further explain why the problem of incrementing cost in
education fees have been a problem due to commodification of education
in China. It will also evaluate implemented solutions, followed by a
solution that can tackle this problem better.

The industrialization of education has caused an increase in the cost of

education and it is becoming a problem in China due to its negative
impacts such as financial problem for poorer families and students being
treated as consumers. Yang (2006) states that grievous stories of working
parents unable to afford to pay their childs education fees, often appear
in the press. She also added that the increasing cost of study has affected
these poor families financially to pay for education fees. This clearly
shows how the increase in education fees have become a crucial problem
in terms of affordability, especially for the poorer individuals.

Another reason why the escalating cost of studies is becoming a problem,

is because it has given way for illegal profiting from the school fees, to
occur. Due to commodification, education became one of the most
profitable industries in China ("Top 15 Most Profitable Industries in China",
2014) and contributed to the rise in education fees, which then led
corruption. According to Yang (2006), Many of those involved in market
principle, arguing that their school prices should conform to the market,
shows that institutions are inflating the cost the education based to its
market. However, she rebutted that some institutions are
commercialising education to pursue profits rather than increasing its
education costs based on the institutions market.

Based on negative impacts, it is crucial that the problem of escalating

education fees should be tackled because the impacts causes social
ramification, where discrepancy in educational inequality is widening the
economic gap between social classes and urban-rural districts (Yang,
2006). There are a few current solutions undertaken to counter this issue,
such as providing scholarships and reforming educational funding.

One of the implemented solutions was by providing scholarships. China

Scholarship Council released scholarships in 2012 and there are 24
Chinese Local Government Scholarships till to date ("Introduction to
Chinese Government Scholarships", 2017). These scholarships are
available for those students who meet the criteria of each scholarship,

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including the fact that they are studying in the province that offers that
particular scholarship. The scholarships could offer to pay for the
students registration fee, tuition fee, fee for basic learning materials and
even buy Comprehensive Medical Insurance ("Introduction to Chinese
Government Scholarships", 2017). Scholarships help to reduce the
education fees on poorer individuals and made education affordable.
Thus, this promotes equality for these individuals to attain knowledge.
Since scholarship made education affordable and available for poorer
individuals, it narrows down the social economic gap between the social
classes. However, it still does not help to improve the social gap between
urban-rural communities as not all rural communities are offered with
scholarships and are not readily available for schools in every province.

Other than that, there is another solution implemented which is reforming

educational funding. Litao (2010) states that reforming educational
funding helps in the redistribution of power and also include the transfer
of responsibilities and financial burden. She also added that it is a
movement where the investment for education costs are dealt by local
governments, communities, students families and non-governmental
organization. It has its advantages as well, in terms of increased
educational output with lesser investment. However, some studies show
the opposite. Data was collated from the Educational Statistics Yearbook
of China in different years. According to the study done by Litao (2010),
our analysis of the regional gap in educational expenditure partially
supports that the regional gap in per student budgetary educational
expenditure in primary schools decreased faster after 2001 but the reform
did not produce any instant result in narrowing the regional gap in
corresponding expenditure in junior secondary schools, which shows that
this solution has helped to a certain extent in narrowing the social
economic gap but did not fully solve the problem. Further studies should
still continue to be carried out to improve the problem.

By providing scholarships and reforming educational funding, it has

helped to reduce the problem in the escalating cost of education, only to a
certain extent. More can be done to improve this problem and financial
assistance seems to be the best way to go. A financial assistance scheme
should be implemented and fully supported by the Chinese government. It
should also be available for poorer students, based on social class, in
every province. For example, in Singapore, the Ministry of Education funds
needy Singapore citizen students in local schools ("Financial Assistance",
2017). This assistance would help to reduce the massive cost of education
for these individuals and provide equal opportunities for all to be
educated. It will help to subsidise school fees from lower to middle income
families; thus, these individuals would not be affected by the rising
education fees or be exploited by the extra cost from illegal profiting.

All in all, commodification of education has altered the cost of education

fees to increase in China and it has become a crucial problem due to its
negative impacts, such as illegal profiting from the school fees and
financial burden for poorer individuals. This issue also impacted Chinas

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social economic gap to widen and increase of inequality in education

availability for all students. There have been ways to counter the problem
in escalating cost of education, such as reforming education funding and
providing scholarships, but a financial assistance scheme, provided by the
government, seems to be the best way to deal with this issue because not
only does it narrows the social economic gap between social classes and
urban-rural communities but also help to support poorer individuals to
attain knowledge and education at an affordable cost. Consequently, it
helps to achieve equality for all individuals to attend school and attain
knowledge.

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