Abstract
Educational equity significantly supports the creation of a harmonious society, which hasbecome one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations for 2030. China’seducation level has greatly improved as nine-year compulsory education popularizedand enrollment expanded in higher education. However, educational inequality remainsa serious issue. This study explores China’s educational inequality from the perspective of regions, urban-rural areas, genders, and age cohorts by constructing and decomposingeducational Gini coefficient based on the concept of relative deprivation. The results indicatethat China’s average years of schooling continued to improve, and educational inequalityshowed a downward trend during 2000-2018. Both men and women average years ofschooling in cities was higher than that in towns and village even for the youngest agecohort. The Gini coefficient difference across genders, urban-rural areas mainly relates tothe oldest age cohort. The Gini coefficient in western region and villages are relativelyhigh, whereas that in the northeast region and cities are relatively low. The gap of the Ginicoefficient between cities and towns and between cities and villages is expanding. Intergroupinequality was the main source of overall educational inequality in regions, urban-rural areas, and genders. Therefore, measures should be taken to improve the educationlevel for the underdeveloped areas and reduce inter-group inequality.
Luo, G.; Zeng, S.; Baležentis, T. 2022. Multidimensional Measurement and Comparison of China’s Educational Inequality. Social indicators research : Springer. ISSN 0303-8300. eISSN 1573-0921. 163, p. 857–874. DOI:10.1007/s11205-022-02921-w. [Scopus; Social Sciences Citation Index (Web of Science)].