Since the introduction of open-door policy in the late 1970’s China has undergone major social, political and economic changes. The economic situation in China has evolved from a government-planned economy to a more liberal market economy. To meet the demand of the fast-growing economy the Chinese education system completed some major changes. The Chinese people strongly believe that education ensures not only the future and the development of the individual but also the economy and the country as a whole, so a good education has always been highly valued in China.
This essay will look at relationship between the Chinese economy and it’s educational system, which is one of the main institutions contributing to the socializing of the individual into the society. This essay will also look into the equality of the educational system or the lack of it. Furthermore, this essay will discuss the rising of parentocracy in China, which is emphasized by the one child policy and further supported by the privatization of the educational system. This essay will overall look into the educational system’s affect on the economic development in China by using the structural functionalist and conflict perspectives to examine the interaction between education and economy, which are some of the interconnected institutions that is a big part of the Chinese society.
Education
Education is an important social institution where knowledge and culture values are being taught.
The French sociologist Emile Durkheim defined the major function of education as the transmission of society’s norms and values1. Society can survive only if these exists among its members as sufficient degree of homogeneity; education perpetuates and reinforces this homogeneity by teaching in the child from the beginning the norms and values which collective life in a society demands. Without it, the cooperation, social solidarity and therefore social life itself would be isolated and