The Influence of Educational Consumerism on Preschool Education in China

Yuwen+JIA

【Abstract】With the rising of peoples living standard and high awareness of the importance of education， people are attaching more importance to tutorial classes. They attempt to equal the acceptance of education with the consumption of commodity， which misleads people to the vicious competition of getting more and more education resources to satisfy individual desires. It exerts disastrous effect on students， schools and even the whole society. So it is necessary to find out the underlying reasons causing such phenomenon and come up with effective methods to deal with it. There are four parts in this essay. The first part introduces the research background and question. After that， the causes and influence of educational consumerism will be analyzed. As for the third part， solutions to tackle with the problem will be discussed. Finally， it is the conclusion. This essay aims to deal with the mistaken tendency of educational consumerism and help correct peoples inaccurate conception toward education.

【Key words】Educational consumerism tendency； education fairness； teacher authority； education legislation； management system

I. Introduction

Jean Baudrillard pointed out that the meaning of consumption is not the actual value of commodity but the symbols of personal wealth and status （Baudrillard 2）. Consumerism is deviated from the aim of consumption which is to meet the needs of people and promote the development of people. It is an unhealthy cultural phenomenon but it is around everywhere in our daily life. With peoples higher living standard and awareness of education receiving， educational consumerism is becoming increasingly significant and epidemic.

After analyzing from the facts， I realize that educational consumerism may mislead the whole society or country. Only we deal with this problem approximately， can the healthy development of Chinas preschool education be ensured. To achieve this goal， I will explore its influence and put forward several methods to tackling with the negative effects.

II. Educational consumerism

2.1 Definition

The penetration of the consumer society characteristics in education is identified as“educational consumerism”. It is a value tendency in which education is the tool. Education consumerists attempt to equal the acceptance of education with the consumption of commodity. It will mislead people to drop into the vicious competition of getting more and more education resources to satisfy individual desires. This value tendency seems to be significant but actually it helps people get nothing.endprint

2.2 Preschool status

Nowadays， people are getting affluent and well educated， so they better realize the importance of education and have extra money to pay for it. The context of the consumerism society also promote them to invest more money in education， especially early childhood education. Education in this situation is like consumptive goods that students are the buyers and schools are sellers. Children are forced to take numerous tutorial classes and attend kindergarten in a lower age. It is not the right way to promote the development of students physical and mental health.

2.3 Bad influence of educational consumerism

2.3.1 Education fairness is difficult to achieve

First， many children cannot receive equal education as they do not have money to afford it. The financial gap between the rich and the poor leads to the inequality of education resources. Second， many talented students pour into key schools which separates high-scored students and low-scored students. Thus， weaker students in poor area enjoy worse education. Third， a large number of teachers flock to key schools or well-developed cities to search for better treatment （Yang 9）. This situation makes it more difficult to achieve education fairness.

2.3.2 Teacher authority is challenged

With Educational consumerism tendency， parents and students tends to regard teachers as a product. Therefore， the situation is much worse for preschool teachers under the market mechanism that it is even harder to maintain their own social authority， especially in the mind of parents of children （Wu 4）. Without the guarantee of teacher authority， it is difficult to ensure effective education outcome and healthy development of the preschool education.

2.3.3 Deviation from the quality-oriented education goal

The aim of quality-oriented education in preschool is to promote students comprehensive development. However， the consumerism tendency of preschool education makes market demands be the keystone for kindergarten development. In order to satisfy the needs of parents and their own profit， students in the eyes of educators are not the potential poets， painters， musicians， or critics. What people think of is to train them to be physicists， engineers or technicians （Mason 13）. The teaching aim is far away from students comprehensive and healthy development.

III. Tackling with educational consumerism

4.1 Narrowing the gap between the rich and the poorendprint

In order to lessen the effect of educational consumerism， education fairness problem should be solved first. The fundamental measure is to alleviate the wealth gap. In recent years， our country has taken many measures to solve this problem， such as“raising personal income tax threshold”， “western development” and so on. These measures stimulate education fairness in backward areas. Here I will introduce two more methods. The first one is to promote employment as full employment is the foundation of forming reasonable income distribution pattern. Promoting employment can be achieved by speeding up industrial development to create more jobs and opportunities and implementing an active policy to support more labor force and poor people. The second method is to promote the balanced development of the urban and rural education by increasing fiscal input to enhance teachers ability and teaching facilities. For example， education financial investment can accelerate the standardization of rural schools； help take good care of the left-behind children in rural areas and improve the financial assistance system toward poor family students.

4.2 Constantly perfecting education legislation

Education legislation is an effective way to solve educational consumerism. Law is the strong guarantee of realizing education justice and helps people gain real benefits and get better environment from education. At present， education resources distribution is imbalanced among regions， urban and rural areas. So the government should aim at indiscriminate education and make scientific education policy accordingly. The perfection of laws and policies can to a large extent protect personal development and guarantee a healthy education development. Consequently， every individual will have equal access to receive education and possess high quality education opportunities.

4.3 Accelerating the reform of schools management system

Reformation can be beneficial for optimizing the allocation of resources and reducing unreasonable expenses. A certain proportion of schools have over-staffing problem which leads to lower efficiency and waste of resource. Here I put forward several solutions. The first one is to implement the Principal Responsibility System. Local schools should strengthen the selection of the principals and give out sufficient training and examinations to them. This solution can greatly improve the school performance. Moreover， in order to stimulate teachers enthusiasm， schools ought to strictly implement post appointment system. The reformation of the teachers employment system not only keeps superior quality of recruited teachers but also strengthen the construction of the teachers in the long term. Teachers sense of responsibility and urgency are also enhanced. Finally， wage allocation reformation， namely， paying for teachers according to their work contribution. The broken of equalitarianism ensures teachers zeal which makes teachers payment increase considerably， arouses the enthusiasm and improves the efficiency of education investment.endprint

IV. Conclusion

China has suffered from educational consumerism， so does American. In February 20th， 1998， Detroit newspaper has specially reported that educational consumerism has more harm to education than benefits. There is a sentence which has reached China and influenced a certain number of Chinese. That is“the real importance is not what you have learned but what you have got from examination” （Labaree 3）. This attitude cares more about the certificates and scores we can get which can contribute to our future career and employment. It runs counter to the essence of education and should be criticized by the whole world. In China， educational consumerism has already exerted a negative influence on our society. Here， I think we should deeply understand the problem and devote ourselves to deter and end this tendency.

References：

[1]Baudrillard，Jean.The consumer Society：Myths and Structures.Sage，London，England，1998，（2）.

[2]Labaree，David F.Educational consumerism：Bad for schools， http：//ed-web3.educ.msu.edu/news/news-briefs/1998/ed-consume.htm.

[3]Mason，Robert.Western Contemporary Education Theory[M].Beijing：Culture Education Publishing House，1984：13-14.

[4]吳康寧.當前我國學校教育活動的主要社會問題[J].南京師大學報（社科版），1991，（4）.

[5]楊東平.對我國教育公平問題的認識和思考[J].教育發展研究，2000，（9）.endprint