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Top1. Introduction
In China, nine-year compulsory education is a public service that the State must provide for all children and young people of school age. The implementation of nine-year compulsory education includes no tuition fees or miscellaneous fees for the nine years that school-age children and teenagers begin to receive education. The State has established a mechanism to guarantee the funding of compulsory education to ensure the implementation of the compulsory education system. Compulsory education has always been a top priority in China's education reform and development, and at the beginning of the 21st century, China achieved the goal of universal nine-year compulsory education by first addressing the issue of “schooling” for children and adolescents of school age as stipulated by law (China.org.cn, 2021).
1.1 Development of the Nine-Year Compulsory Education Policy
With the development of globalization, governments and relevant educational organizations and institutions around the world have reached a consensus on the objectives, content and methods of education. As a result, the objectives, content and methods of educational policy have also changed. China has been developing its education in the past few years and has gradually become a success story (Cai, 2020). China has been able to learn from the English-speaking countries. Today, China's education system is not only a reference or reference for other countries, but also has Chinese characteristics. The two are combined. But with China's rapid development, the country's population has reached over one billion people. China has developed a huge state-run public education system. Correspondingly, education policy needs to address the issue of access to education for this huge population. It is well known that every child in China must receive at least a basic education (Pang, 2021). Compulsory education is a very successful education policy or system. Compulsory education originated in Germany. In many countries around the world, compulsory education was applied to schools for four or six years in the early years. In Japan, education is compulsory for nine years.
1.2 Background
Compulsory education was first introduced in the Qing Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, compulsory education was widely practiced in various countries in Europe and America, as well as in Japan in Asia. When officials of the Qing dynasty learn of this, they used the terms 'compulsory education' and 'forced education' when drafting the relevant documents of the Qing court in the early 20th century. Nine years compulsory education is a historical reason and an inevitable trend in social development (Song, 2021). One of the remarkable educational achievements of the People's Republic of China since its founding is the nine-year compulsory education system. As a result of the nine years of compulsory education, China has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. In 1949, China's primary school enrollment rate was only about 25% (Chu, 2019). Before the nine-year compulsory education system was introduced in 1986, China did not achieve the desired results in terms of universal literacy. China's rapid economic growth has played a large part in the success of the literacy campaign, especially as all levels of government have incorporated the nine-year compulsory education into the job performance of officials (Gao, 2015). While the nine-year compulsory education policy has made great achievements in education, it still faces problems. For example, the nine-year compulsory education policy has led to disparities in educational standards between urban and rural areas in China, even in different schools in the cities, with large numbers of rural students studying in the cities, resulting in over-sized classes in many schools. Compulsory nine-year education needs to become more efficient. School buildings and classrooms have been refurbished in recent years, but poor teaching methods and unqualified teachers continue to make education less attractive to some children. The Chinese government, as well as the education sector, must therefore take steps to improve the quality of education in rural schools. It is important to nurture the creative talent that will help China become an innovative and prosperous economy in the future (Snapshot, 2016).