Reform and Development of Educational Administration System in China

The paper mainly introduces the development of the educational administration agency in China, including the evolution of the educational administration agency, the Course of instituting legal system of education in China, the missions of the now Minister of Education, questions emerged in the development of the educational administration system, and measures taken to reform the educational administration system. By the description of the development of the educational administration system from Oct. 1949 to 1998, the questions of the educational administration system are pointed out and measures taken to resolve those questions are brought forward, as follow: to reconstruct the educational administration functions, to provide the opportunity for the citizens to participate in educational management, and to improve the legal system for education needs to strengthen the supervision and evaluation of education.


Introduction
The educational administration system in China is layered, including administrative organization from the center to the local. Though the work has mainly divided into two groups between the organization in the center and ones in the local, yet the administrative levels are clearly demarcated. In on side, the administrative organizations in the local follow the leadership of the local government, and in the other, they are led and guided in vocation by the superior administrative organization. Accordingly, the educational administration system exists in China that is representative bureaucratic structures.
The course of the reform and the status of the education administration system will be clarified in the paper.

Systems analysis
System is a whole composed of many elements that have specific functions and relate one another. System theory is a whole cognition about external system and the essence of it that forms in people's social practice. Therefore, system analysis analyze the questions based the standpoint of system. The educational administration system in China and the surroundings of educational administration are complex and mutative. Hence system analysis should be the basic method in analyze the educational administration and its system.

Institutional analysis
In the public administration, there are the institutions proclaimed in writing and the underlying ones that restrict the reform and development of education.
Institution plays an important role in the modern society though the crucial influence on people's values and behavior. At the same time, that provides a tool to analyze the questions about educational administration. In the paper, institutional analysis will be used to construe the elements of the system and relations between them.

Evolution of the educational administration agency
The central educational administration agency is the national educational administration organization. Since 1998, the central educational administration agency is Ministry of Education. And the predecessor of that is the State Education Commission which was built in 1985. The evolution history of central educational administration agency from 1949 to 1998 could be seen in the below dissertation.
In Nov. 1949 From Sep. 1954to Jun. 1970, that is the second period when the Minister of Education as the national educational administration agency managed and led the development of countrywide education.
In Jun. 1970, the Central Committee of the CPC approved the plan of the State Council's institutional reform, deciding to repeal the Minister of Education and found the Science and Education Group of the State Council to simplify the administrative structure.
Until the First Session of the Fourth National People's Congress in Jan. 1975, in virtue of proposal of the Central Committee of the CPC, the Session decided to set up the Minister of Education again. In 1982, the State Council began the institutional reform and authorized the missions and functions of the Minister of Education. In the period, the main mission of the Minister of Education is that guiding and managing the countrywide education, training constructors and successors with all round development of morality, intelligence and physique for the socialist cause. In addition, there were nine aspects of the functions of the Minister of Education. Hereinbefore, that is the third period when the Minister of Education existed from Jan.1975to Jun.1985. In Jun.1985 Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Sixth National People's Congress decided to found the National Education Commission to reinforce the leading of education. After the National Education Commission founded, the Minister of Education has been repealed. Up to the present, the Education Commission as one of the parts that compose the government in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing Municipality exists, though other provinces have replaced the Education Commission by the Office of Education after the fourth State Council's institutional reform in 1998.
In Mar. 1998, the First Session of the Ninth NPC considered and passed the plan of the State Council institutional reform. Henceforward, the National Education Commission changed the name to be the Minister of Education. From Mar.1998, the Minister of Education began the fourth period as the central educational administration agency.

Course of instituting legal system of education in China
Though a new educational administration agency has founded in 1949, yet until Mar. 1995 the Third Session of the Ninth NPC passes the Education Law of the People's Republic of China which became effective on Sep.1 1995, the legal system of education began to come into being.
This law codifies many of the pervious policies and decrees, especially the Decision of the Reform of the Education System by the Central Committee of CPC on May 27 1985. So far it has been the guiding document of reform for all the levels of education. Its main points are outlined below: (1) The fundamental aim of the reform of education system is improving the national diathesis, and insuring that the education system shall supply a sufficient number of highly qualified personnel (2) To transfer the obligation to develop basic education to the local government and implement a 9-year compulsory education policy step by step.
(3) To regulate the structure of the secondary education and expand the system of technical and vocational education.
(4) To reform the plan of recruiting and the system of assign graduate in the colleges and universities, and grant the colleges and universities more decision-making power.
(5) To strengthen educational leadership, and establish a State Education Commission which has larger status than the previous Ministry of Education.
After the promulgation of the Decision of the Reform of the Education System, the Compulsory Education Law of the People's Republic of China was passed in the Fourth Session of the Sixth NPC on Apr.12 1986. Subsequently, the Vocational Education Law of the People's Republic of China was adopted at the 19th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth NPC on May 15 1996, and the 4th Session of the Ninth NPC Standing Committee passed the Higher Education Law of the People's Republic of China on Aug.29 1998. In the same year, the new Minister of Education came into existence, which replaced the State Education Commission. Thus, the education system began to have an increasingly profound influence on the development of education in the present China.

Questions emerged in the development of the educational administration system
Every reform of the educational administration system adjusts with the need of the development of education at a certain extent. However, there are many limitations emerged in the course of the reform and the development. The educational administration system should be a comparative steady framework. At least, it shouldn't be transformed one form into another and later transformed "another" into "one form" back and forth, e.g. in 1952, the Minister of Higher Education was separated from the Minister of Education, and it combined with the latter to be a new Minister of Education in 1958. However, the Minister of Education was divided into two parts that included the Minister of Higher Education and the Minister of Education again. Yet two divided parts united into the Minister of Education once again. The random in setup could destroy the seriousness of the system. Otherwise, the appellation of the educational administration agency changed constantly from 1985 to 1998, though there was no obvious transformation in its mission and function. When the central educational administration agency took place some changes, the local could react to it oppositely in time, especially on the surface, e.g. in 1985, accompanying with that the National Education Commission founded, all the Office of Education in local changed into the Education Commission. However, most of them were replaced with the Office of Education again due to the change occurred in the central education administration agency.
The National Education Commission set up in 1985, a comprehensive sector charged with manage the countrywide education of the State Council, acclimatized itself to the development of the education and the demand of the educational system reform. Whereas the State Council institutional reform began in 1998 and many departments of it were repealed, most of the colleges and universities subject to those departments were transferred to the local and under the subjection of the local government. At the same time, the new Minister of Education founded, the power of which has lessened difficult to correspond with other departments or commission and plan as a whole. Based on the objectivity and the tendency of the educational development, the educational administration agency should transform the functions, decentralize the power and enlarge the decision-making power of the schools further.

Reconstruction of the educational administration functions.
Be similar to the reform of the administration system, the reform of the educational administration system should also focus on the reconstruction of the educational administration functions.
The educational role of the government is in relation to the community, schools and the individuals. That is the objective requirement of the educational development and the national capacity, which determines that the function of government in educational administration is limited. Therefore, the national all-inclusive education model and a single situation of controlling schools in the past should be remodeled. At present, government's functions of educational administration should be limited legally, and to promote the macro management function of educational administration, providing educational opportunities, balancing the educational needs and improving the educational efficiency. The educational administration agency should covert the role of provider to the role of guarantee for the quality of education, and gives the educational institutions more autonomy. The reposition of the government's function of the educational administration and the transformation of its way don't mean the government decentralize the power and undermine the function of it constantly. By contraries, in some respects, e.g. government's macro management, the government's power should also be strengthened. In other words, government should be powerful and forceful in this purview.
In addition, an effective macro adjustment system for higher education is to be established. A macro management system that is adaptive to educational system reform must be built up to improve and strengthen the macro management in the field of education. Through interventions such as overall planning, policies and strategies, information guidance, inspection, evaluation and funding, an effective macro adjustment mechanism is to be established to prevent the unbalance of educational system. The authority in education provision of the local governments and the educational institutions will be expanded gradually.
3.4.2 To provide the opportunity for the citizens to participate in educational management For a long time, government made a monopoly of the educational management. Information asymmetry exists between government and the individuals being educated, and the citizens are usually in the passive position. Therefore, the citizens' right of participation in management of education should be expanded to have more space of autonomy.
Synchronously, to enhance the forces of the citizens to restrict the government's power of the educational administration is indispensable. This means the citizens could participate in the management of education. According to the character of quasi-public product, in fact the citizens purchase the educational public goods provided by government or other institutions after paying taxes or fee. They are entitled to require the quality of the educational products to meet their needs.
3.4.3 To improve the legal system for education needs to strengthen the supervision and evaluation of education.
The promulgation and implementation of Law on Compulsory Education, Law on Vocational Education, Law on Higher Education and Law on Education provide a solid foundation for administrating education in accordance with laws. During the past years, a developed legal system framework for educational development has been established to provide legal foundation for the educational management and administration. In order to ensure the effective implementation of educational policies and the stable improvement of educational quality and efficiency, more supervision on primary and secondary education is required to establish a better supervision system. For higher education and secondary vocational education, an evaluation system with educational quality and efficiency as the priority will be gradually built up.

Conclusion
At present, an education system with government as the major investor and social partners as co-investors has been set up in China, and local government is playing a key role in compulsory education, while central government and provincial government are dominant in higher education. In vocational and adult education, social partners including industrial organizations, businesses and public institutions are playing a more and more important role.
Though the Chinese educational administration system still needs to be consummated, yet the developments in China's educational administration system have had an increasingly profound influence on the education and even each aspect of the society. And the reform and development of the educational administration system would have an effect upon other systems, just as many of them have influenced the present system of educational administration.