ABSTRACT
Based on the CFPS data, this chapter describes the educational and cognitive well-being of China’s children and youth. In our description and analysis of the educational and cognitive well-being of China’s children and youth, we look at a broad array of elements and factors, including school enrollment, class size, reported satisfaction with school and with one’s academic performance, the scores of their tests on vocabulary and math, their college aspirations and educational attainment. We give special attention to urban-rural differences as well as variations based on age, gender, family structure, and region. A comparison of child educational well-being between 2010 and 2014 shows large increases in the proportion of rural children, including left-behind children, who were enrolled in preschool and reported a high level of satisfaction with schools. Despite this, there still exist significant differences between rural and urban children in pre-school education, high school attendance, and college aspirations. The rural-urban gap is clearly seen in the lower cognitive test scores for rural children.
