A Comparative Policy Study of China’s School Reform Waves, 1979–2023: Considerations of Sequence and Context

Abstract

This comparative study investigates China’s policy reform waves alongside global education trends, analyzing 334 central-level policy documents published by the National People’s Congress, State Council, and Ministry of Education between 1979 and 2023. The study identifies three waves: enhancing access (1979–1990), improving quality and accountability (1991–2010), and enforcing equity (2011–2023). Even though the decentralization of finance and administration of education led, a few years later, to equity and quality concerns, several key differences to global reform trends remained: decentralization did not lead to deregulation; outcomes-based regulation complemented but did not replace input-based regulation; equity remained central, especially in the final reform wave.