Partner Organization: 21st Century Education Research Institute
Project Duration: Dec 2015-Dec 2016
Project Status: Completed
The 21st Century Education Research Institute and the New Citizen Programme worked together on this project to publish a book about the issues surrounding education for migrant children. The book compiled the views of experts and scholars from discussions, press releases, media reports and salon discussions on the topic. By creating a platform that facilitates an exchange of ideas and inquiry between academics, the government, researchers and activists, the project aims to attain a more in-depth understanding of the issue to positively influence government policy in this respect.
An effective solution to the issues surrounding education for migrant children requires the consideration of multiple factors. In particular, the destination cities struggle with allocating sufficient funds towards education and the transfer process. This project hopes to further promote the co-ordination of funds across districts, counties, municipal, provincial and national levels.
• Scientific Study for Bedtime Story Project for Rural Boarding Schools
Partner Organization: Growing Home
Project Duration: Jun 2015 - Dec 2017
Project Status: Completed
The bedtime story project for rural boarding schools in China was an initiative started by Growing Home in 2013. The team believed that by reading a story before bedtime every night, it would help the students in the boarding school feel less homesick and lonely, ultimately improving the student’s mental and physical state before going to bed. The success of the project was due to its easy implementation and obvious positive effects on the students. However, despite benefiting more than 90,000 students, the reach of the project was restricted due to the lack of scientific evidence and effective evaluation methods which limited support from the central and provincial education departments.
Nevertheless, the Growing Home team worked with the China Institute for Education Finance Research at Peking University and several provincial education departments to launch a 2.5-year scientific evaluation and study of the project across 80-90 schools. Through this study, the bedtime story project hoped to win the support of the provincial and central education department’s support in order to achieve widespread adoption in boarding schools for benefit of their students’ mental and physical well-being. The Beijing Yifang Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Macao Tong Chai Charity Association, Porticus Asia jointly funded the study.
Partner Organization: 21st Century Education Research Institute
Project Duration: May 2015 - Jun 2016
Project Status: Completed
In 2015, the Central Document No. 1 and the Central Comprehensively Deepening Reforms Commission’s 11th meeting held in April 2015 reviewed and approved the “Village Teacher Support Programme 2015-2020” which proposed multiple measures and targeted policies to develop a team of qualified and dedicated teachers for schools in the rural villages in China. The introduction of these policies has had a direct, positive impact on the standard of education and teaching environment.
For this reason, the Beijing Yifang Foundation sponsored a project to identify the factors that led to the success of the policy with the hope of initiating positive change and changing the perception of the profession. The study covered teachers from 10 counties. Practical, effective and transferable practices were compiled and later published and shared. This was in line with the “Village Teacher Support Programme 2015-2020”. This project chose to focus on three of seven areas in order to achieve a more in-depth study, namely, teacher wages, supply of teachers and teacher evaluation.