ABSTRACT
On April 26, 1992, the Chinese press announced that scientists had developed their own form of the miracle drug interferon that would be mass produced shortly. The announcement came two days after the International Telecommunication Satellite Organization announced that it would use China’s “Long March” rocket for satellite launches in 1995-1996 (FBIS April 28, 1992a; FBIS April 28, 1992b), and twoand-a-half weeks after the State Commission of Science and Technology announced a commitment to send its own astronauts into space before the year 2000 (FBIS April 8, 1992). These achievements are remarkable for any developing country, but are especially noteworthy for a country that also admitted to having an illiterate population of 180 million people (illiteracy being defined as the inability to read a minimum of 2,000 characters if one lives in an urban area, 1,500 characters if one lives in rural China) and 2 million children who are not enrolled in school at all (FBIS February 10, 1992). It is the basic assumption of this paper that insofar as the above noted information highlights the existence of increased technological prowess amidst widespread social inequality in China, an analysis of social class issues and their relationship to education not only holds the key to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the world’s largest educational system, but can also contribute to a broader discussion of education and equity in comparative terms.
