Ningxia Modern Educational Research

Education for ethnic minorities is taken seriously by the Chinese educational circles and academic circles at present, and which leads to a great deal achievements are obtained by researching the history of ethnic education. Meanwhile, much more attention is paid to the Hui people's education for its large population in China and their well kept traditional culture . The education in Northwest and even in whole nation was certainly influenced by general modern education in Ningxia ,not only accounted for its religious education but also for its public education. The study on the history of the educational modernization in Ningxia provides a typical insight for the educational study on Hui minority and the study on educational history in the ethnic areas , which has great academic value and practical significance.Based on the first hand historical materials and the obtained achievements, we try to give a comprehensive research on the modern education in Ningxia . According to the development of public education and religious education, this thesis is divided into the following five chapters.The first chapter is on society and educational aspects in Ningxia,and before the New Deal of the late Qing Dynasty. Due to many Hui people were forced to move to the poor and remote areas in Ningxia after the Reign of Tongzhi, education among Hui people was quite backward , and the development of education was very imbalanced. Confucianism in Ningxia served the Keju institution, which valued ethical education but looked down on technical training. While mosque education in Ningxia was aim at cultivating Imam and the teachers for muslims, which taught children Arabic and basics about Islam during the elementary phase as well as profound knowledge about Islam in the senior grades. Most of the Hui chidren in Ningxia learned in mosques but not in these schools which were run by the government or in Shexue and Yixue ,therefore the existed gap of learning Confucian culture between Hui people and Han people was widened.The second chapter concerns the first step development and coming into being of the modern education system in Ningxia. In 1903, the Mancheng academy of classical learning was shifted to school, which was considered to be the beginning of Ningxia's modern education.and then the public education especially the Hui public education was modernized step by step with the joint efforts of Hui and Han for almost 30 years. Many Hui chidren went to Muslim schools in which Han chidren were few, meanwhile some of Hui chidren learned in public schools yet with a unstable increase of the enrolling number. But the mosque education in Ningxia couldn't well adapt the changing social situation and always adhered to its old rules.The third ,the fourth and the fifth chapters involve respectively: the educational policies and administration after the establishment of Ningxia province ; the further development of the public education in Ningxia; social education in schools, transformed mosque education and missionary education.Since 1929 the educational policy for the border regions and the policy of compelling education had dominated the form of education in Ningxia. In order to balance the educational development between different ethnics, the educational policy for the border regions was to unify the various forms of education .While the policy of compelling education was to let all children to learn in primary schools from grade one to grade four, meanwhile, let the masses to learn how to read. However, the proper policies couldn't be carried on smoothly without right function of educational administration. Even if the organization of educational administration was established perfectly, it couldn't reach its original expectation because of the short of financial support.The development of primary education, secondary school education and higher education shaped in Pyramid, because primary education for children as well as civilians went fast and widely, while the progress secondary school education had made was less with simple vocational education, normal education and middle school education, and the development of higher education was the least without higher university.As far as the social education is concerned, since Ningxia province was established , the population of the literate increased much faster than ever before , but still less than the goal set before. While the mosque education in Ningxia developed fast, meantime, missionary education made a progress further by adjusting educational principles and methods.All in all, compared the education with other provinces", the development of education of Ningxia in modern time were not only unique but also sharing similarities for its special situation and historical background.