Unleashing resources for education in China: towards a student‐assisted education

Abstract

The world at large and the developing nations in particular, are facing at once the problems of escalating cost and insufficient supply of the right kind of manpower, as well as a declining quality in education. China is not an exception to this general rule, although its relatively backward state does prevent it from having over‐committed its resources to highly cost‐ineffective forms of education. The aim of this paper is to prescribe a novel scheme that is appropriate to China's situation. The gist of the proposed scheme is to make full use of students as inputs to the system. It is contended that under the proposed mode of organization, a vast amount of resources could be generated internally within the system without the need to involve substantial additional cost. Apart from benefiting students at all levels, the new resources unleashed would enable teachers to assume more productive roles and ultimately enable a system of effective education to emerge.