Minority Girls in Guangxi Face Roadblocks to Higher

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 001189 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SOCI PGOV PHUM SUBJECT: Minority Girls in Guangxi Face Roadblocks to Higher Education ¶1. SUMMARY: There are fewer assistance programs and educational opportunities for ethnic minority girls in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region than for other children in China. Many fail to complete compulsory education, and options narrow further at high school due to their being sent off to work as migrant laborers in cities or their being married off. End Summary. ¶2. Ethnic minority girls in southwest China have historically enjoyed fewer educational opportunities than other children in China. As recently as 2006, a government survey in Guangxi found that only 70 percent of the autonomous region's children completed nine years of compulsory education, as compared to the national average of 98 percent. In conversations with Congenoff, educators and government leaders in Guangxi indicated that ethnic minority girls comprised the majority of those who did not finish the nine years of required schooling. Compulsory Education: Better, But Still Incomplete -------------- -------------- ¶3. A 2006 survey conducted by the Canadian Civic Society Project (CCSP) showed that some minority girls were pulled out of school by their parents during the compulsory education period. In three counties, the research team surveyed five schools with educational aid projects for minority girls, and found that ten percent of minority girls surveyed had suspended their education at some point during primary school, while 4.6 percent took a break during middle school. ¶4. The main obstacles to minority girls completing their education are poverty and a cultural preference for boys. In the Canadian survey, almost 60 percent of girls surveyed said that boys in their families received more educational opportunities than girls, and 33 percent said their parents did not want to invest in girls, even if they were good students. If forced to choose between giving a son or a daughter an education, parents will often choose to invest in a son. ¶5. However, there is evidence the situation is improving. Educators at minority schools said that recent emphasis on the compulsory education law by the regional government had led to more students, including minority girls, attending school on a regular basis. Moreover, though government officials admitted that there were currently no educational programs that specifically targeted minority girls, those girls were eligible to take advantage of financial aid policies designed to help poor students in general. Additionally, assistance is sometimes available from groups such as The Blossom Project, which was founded in cooperation with the All China Women's Federation, the Guangxi Children's Fund and foreign donors. The Project, which endeavors to help girls complete their compulsory education, has already raised $3.7 million and helped 150,000 girls complete compulsory education since its establishment in 1998. High School: A Victim of the "Great Bottleneck" -------------- -- ¶6. After finishing primary school, educational opportunities for minority girls narrow significantly. Due to financial pressure, most work as migrant laborers in cities, or stay in the village and get married. In response to the question, "What would you do if you were not able to continue to high school?" 60 percent of the CCSP respondents said they would get married. Although the legal marriage age in China is 20 for women, it is common for minority girls in Guangxi to marry at 15, but to legally register their marriage only after turning 20. ¶7. An educator at a minority high school in Liuzhou told us that high school is not a government priority, arguing that more resources are devoted to compulsory education, vocational training and universities. As a result, large numbers of middle school graduates face a "great bottleneck" of high schools with limited capacity. And for those who are able to go on to high school, there is little government financial aid. ¶8. Due to the lack of government attention and funding of high schools, several Guangxi educators told us they have had to come up with creative solutions to help their students. Some high schools in Guangxi organize work trips over the summer and Spring Festival holidays to industrial hubs like Dongguan, where the students can work in factories for a short time to earn money for school. Also, in the late 90s, in an attempt to provide rural and minority girls with a high school education equal to that of their peers, experiments with all-girl high schools were conducted. In 2000, there were about 45 public and private all-girl high schools around China. However, they have since fallen out of favor among Chinese educators. Today, there are only seven, one of which is in Guangxi. GUANGZHOU 00001189 002 OF 002 University: Targeting Minorities, Not Girls -------------- ¶9. When minority girls in Guangxi attend college, most of them go to the Guangxi Nationalities University, where 60 percent of the students are ethnic minorities. The administrators at the university said there were no special policies in place to recruit female students. The administration does try to ensure that the university has at least one student from each of Guangxi's 12 minorities, but otherwise there is no quota system. Instead, there are policies to help minority students whose college entrance scores were not high enough to gain them admission to the school. About 600 students come to Guangxi Nationalities University to take an extra year of preparatory classes they subsequently transfer to the four-year program. GOLDBERG