In the past decade, a wide ranging national reform has taken place in China for the country's modernization plan. In its educational reform, the national compulsory education law was enacted in China in 1986, which was a first in the People's Republic's history. To carry out nine-year compulsory education, fundamental education has been reformed with a focus on letting local governments be responsible for running rural education. The purpose of this dissertation research was to examine and evaluate the policies and practices of the ongoing compulsory education in China. It intended to trace the development of rural education since the 1911 Revolution, led by Dr. Sun Yatsen, who also proposed that the Chinese people receive compulsory education.;This study employed historical and descriptive methodologies. The study was conducted in Liaoning Province through documentation review, administration of a questionnaire, field observation, and interviews.;The major findings of the study were: the ongoing compulsory education is the result of China's modernization program; compulsory education in Liaoning Province has been carried out as planned with almost 100 percent elementary education enrollment and junior high compulsory education is on the way; the decentralization of fundamental education is due to the Chinese Central Government's release from the financial responsibility; the model of nine-year compulsory education in rural China is that of the Central level designing, provincial level planning, city and county levels supervising, township level managing, and village level paying.;Under the implementation policy on rural compulsory education, funding has become a heavy burden for the Chinese peasants. The implementing quality--including that of the ongoing model, administrators, teachers, teachers' training programs, and standards and the results of extending compulsory education--deserves a great deal of attention.
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