A recent proposal put forward by deputies to the People's Congress
of Jiangsu Province has led to quite an outcry. It sought to give
citizens of high educational attainment permission to have a second
child while at the same time strengthening birth control measures
for poorly educated peasants.
The proposal emerged during the working up new draft Regulations on
Population and Family Planning in Jiangsu Province. It was made by
some members of the Standing Committee of Jiangsu Provincial
People's Congress, which is the local legislature.
According to a report of the June 19 Yangtze Evening Post, the
controversial measure had not been included in the legislation that
was actually adopted. Although this particular proposal was dropped
before the legislation became law, it has flagged up a wide
divergence of opinion on the underlying issues.
One widely held opinion is that a better educated couple are more
likely to give birth to a healthy baby and are in a better position
to provide a sound upbringing.
Miss Meng, a government employee in Chaoyang District of Beijing,
said, "In general terms, well educated people do have advantages
over those who are less well educated. Their children may well be
smarter. One important factor would be that they are well informed
on matters concerning the education of their children".
Her view is representative of those people who point to a
relationship between better education and higher social status
potentially leading to better educational conditions for the
children.
Some would suggest that such a controversial policy if introduced
could help ameliorate the burden on society and on the state purse
by reducing the number of mothers in financial difficulties. It
could also serve to reduce the number of children unable to go to
school. In this school of thought money should not be wasted on
uneducated people who exceed the constraints of family planning
policy. The rationale offered in support of this is that their low
standards in caring for and in particular educating their children
will have an adverse effect on the general population through the
additional burdens imposed on the state.
However the cons outweigh these pros:
Like father, like son? But many talented individuals were born
poor! This is a sentiment popular on the Internet. Many "netizens"
are also convinced that a glowing educational record may not
necessarily be synonymous with high quality and even suggest that
some college degrees may be obtained fraudulently. So they say
"high quality" parents are no guarantee of "high quality" children.
Many holders of master's degrees and doctorates were born in rural
areas and their children may go on to commit crimes. The real issue
facing us here is not one of birth control but one of further
promoting good compulsory education as a means of raising the
educational standards of everyone in society.
"Any recourse to some sort of 'well-born' hypothesis could tend to
destabilize our society. It would be retrogressive to do so in a
democratic society; it denies fundamental principles of human
egalitarianism which we have subscribed to for thousands of years,"
said Master Lu who works in a foreign company and has a
two-year-old son. He considers it to be a form of discrimination
that would have a negative effect on our society.
Tong Xin, a Doctor of Sociology from Peking University, considers
it could be possible that a mother with a good educational
background might have some increased chance of having children who
go on to successful educational attainment. However, he believes
that this should not be used as grounds for policies leading to
differential treatment. This would result in some people being
deprived of their basic rights. "Educational attainment should not
be used as grounds for privileged treatment," he said.
This could be an impracticable policy. "It is quite probable that
the well educated might not take advantage of such a privilege
anyway," said Li. Her husband has a post-doctoral degree and they
have a five-year-old son. But she wouldn't have a second child. "As
a busy professional woman, I don't have the energy to care for and
educate more children. China is an underdeveloped country and most
well educated couples can only make provision for a high standard
education for just one child.
Last December, Zhang Weiqing, director of the State Family Planning
Commission described the birth rate of urban and developed areas as
very low with some places even having a negative growth in
population. The situation is quite the opposite in the countryside
especially in central and western rural areas. "The poor have more
children and the more they have the poorer they are," he said.
The policy could only offer a temporary rather than permanent
solution. To date, China has a population of 1.3 billion. Only 30
million can claim education to at least college level standard. No
matter how many children the members of this group were to bear, it
would not have much of an effect on China's population as a
whole.
China is over populated. If the rural economy remains static, rural
incomes will improve little. In the extended families of the
countryside there is a tradition of the young supporting the old
and of having larger families as a hedge against old age.
To
encourage birth rates amongst the well educated would lead to
further pressure on population growth. The key to the solution lies
in helping everyone to self-improvement through education.
Any thoughts of privilege for a "well-born" elite should be
abandoned, according to Professor Jiang, of the Population
Institute of Peking University. He said, "Encouraging higher birth
rates in elites is not new. We should remember the notorious
precedence of the eugenics favored by the Nazi regime at the time
of World War Two. This was a fundemental tenet of their racism.
Research shows that the mother's educational background plays an
important role in the success of the child's upbringing. But there
is no evidence of a correlation between the level of education of
the parents and the IQ of their children. Talent leading to a
distinguished life is nurtured by education generally. The road to
the cultural advancement of our population must be paved with
educational opportunities for all our people".
An
editor surnamed Cheng with a magazine based in Xicheng District,
Beijing, said, "It is somewhat unsettling to see there is some
popular support for the discriminatory proposal which was offered
to this local People's Congress."
He
believes the opinions involved are similar to those of a newly
emerging parochialism which discriminates against migrant workers.
"As economic development progresses, 'elites' will likely emerge in
China. However, credence should not be given to elitism in any form
through the publications or policy of the state. To do so would
only offer support to such views and create privileges, which
should not exist in a democratic country."
(china.org.cn by Li Liangdu, July 27, 2002)