Research On The Functions Of Local Government In The Development Of Public General High School Education

Education has the basic properties of public goods,and the development of education in public high schools around the world always depends on the government.In the year of 1932 the Nanking National Government issued The Secondary School Act and in 1953 the Ministry of Education of PRC introduced Suggestions on Building Some Key Senior High Schools and Teachers‘Schools.Although the public high schools in our country have passed through that stage under the leadership of the government,they are now faced with the new strategic objectives of popularizing high school education.As a service-oriented goverument,it is bound to face some problems in the process of promoting the popularization of high school education.Only if the government gives full play to and perfects its functions and renders support to the public high schools in every aspect such as policy,capital and resources can the public high schools enjoy more balanced and adequate development,thus attaining education equality.In this paper the author takes Xi’an as an example and probes into the problem of what role the local government should play in the development of public high schools.Based on the investigation of the educational current situation of public high schools in Xi’an City,the author not only reflects on and analyzes existing problems in the function of the government,but also put forward some pointed countermeasures and suggestions about how to improve the government function so as to achieve the adequate and balanced development of public high schools in Xi’an.The article consists of four parts:The first part introduces the significance of the research,the current situation of domestic and foreign research,the research mentality and the research methods.In the second part,the author defines some relevant concepts such as public ordinary high schools,education development and government function,and meanwhile,expounds the theoretical basis of the study,namely,the Government Functions Theory and the New Public Service Theory which are founded on the Education Equity Theory by James Coleman and Torsten Husen.The third part mainly studies and analyzes the present situation,existing problems and main causes of the development of public high schools in Xi’an City.By means of questionnaires and interviews,the author compares the five most famous high schools in Xi’an and other public high schools,concluding that Xi’an Municipal Government made painstaking efforts to accelerate the development of public high schools in the aspect of project,funding and policy and achieved fruitful results.However,there still exist many tricky problems which remain to be solved through perfecting government functions,such as the differential financial supply,the unfair allocation of limited resources,the biased formulation and implementation of policies.The fourth part brings forward some effective countermeasures and suggestions about how to improve the government function so as to achieve the further development of public high schools in Xi’an,which mainly includes the following suggestions:formulating characteristic development programs in an overall way while in the meanwhile exercising contractual management;allocating education resources in a balanced way in order to join the non-government sectors in forming the network governance system;implementing the entity responsibility so as to enhance managerial effectiveness.