An Analysis of Chinese Community Education Policy

Abstract

Based on the systematic review of the government- issued regulatory documents related to community education using the leading Chinese data base of WanFang, the article maps the terrain of community education in china from 1992 to present. It is found that community education in China has experienced a fundamental change from being responsible merely for out-of-school ethic education for primary and secondary school students before 21^st century to training and education activities for adults in need of them under social transformation. In addition, it grows from mere community education committee responsible for its work to a comparatively complete system capable of rallying necessary human and material resources to ensure its function. The changes of community education policy were directly motivated by the domestic socioeconomic development in the past 30 years and the global educational notion of lifelong learning and building a learning society. Finally, the problems such as the absence of national laws and some others in current community education in China are discussed.