中国教育产品提供方式的现状分析和政策选择

教育部门主要提供个人和社会所需要的教育产品.教育产品的提供方式是教育资源配置和利用决策中的核心问题.教育产品的基本属性表现为效用上的可分割性、消费上的竞争性、受益上的排他性、正外部性、公益性,政府资助是促使教育产品供应最优化的重要条件.义务教育是公共产品,高中教育和高等教育是具有公益性的私人产品,职业技术教育和成人教育基本上是私人产品.当前我国教育产品提供方式的基本格局为义务教育产品以政府生产和提供为主,市场生产和提供的范围很有限;非义务教育产品虽然主要依托政府生产和提供,但近期市场生产和提供的份额越来越大.今后我国教育产品提供应当形成政府、市场、社会和学校相互联系、相互制约的运行机制.政府应成为公办学校的举办者、管理者和民办学校的支持者;市场提供社会所需的数量有限的赢利性产品和较大量的非赢利性产品;中介组织更多更好地参与产品生产服务体系的建立和发展工作;各级各类学校积极采用科学、规范、高效的运作方式提供数量足、质量高、社会所需的各类教育产品.

Current Situation and Policy Choice of the Ways of Providing Educational Goods in China

Educational department provides individuals and the society with the educational goods they need.Thus,the ways of providing educational goods are the core questions in the allocation and utilization of educational resources.With the speeding-up of educational development,it needs an urgent adjustment of the ways of providing educational goods in China.As a component of social goods,educational goods are characterized by non-divisibility in utility,competitiveness in consumption and exclusiveness in benefit-gaining.Therefore,educational goods can be classified as private goods.To sum up,it is absolutely practical for the market to provide educational goods.However,educational goods can not be totally equal to private goods,since educational goods are featured with positive externalities and obvious public social benefits.All in all,a great majority of educational goods have the features of mixed goods.As the level of education increases,the features of education as public goods diminish and those as private goods increase.Compulsory education is typical public goods and in the real sense of public goods,compulsory education should be free education.Senior secondary education is a voluntary and selective education,characterized by competitiveness in consumption and exclusiveness in benefit-gaining.Thus,senior secondary education is private goods.Although higher education is mainly private goods,it has certain positive externalities and is private goods with public social benefits.Vocational and technical education is basically private goods since it has very strong competitiveness in consumption and exclusiveness in benefit-gaining.And adult education is completely private goods.In the future,the ways of providing educational goods should be based on the operational mechanism of the interrelations and inter-constraints of the government,market,society and schools,which will not only facilitate the macro-management of the government,but encourage the active participation of various social factors in school operations,and schools will have certain freedom in their operations as well.The compulsory education should conduct a development strategy of government as the main producer and provider and the market as the supplementary one,so it is necessary and urgent to realize the free compulsory education and strengthen the fiscal transfer from governments to the compulsory education.As for senior secondary schools,the government should increase its fiscal support and the expenditure of senior secondary education can't be collected by fee charging.And as for vocational and technical schools,the government should increase vocational education investment in ways of student aids instead of general investment.And it is a tendency in the future to strengthen the role of industrial administrations and organizations in the vocational and technical education.Furthermore,the provision of higher education goods should be mainly based on the market,instead of on the government,and it is very necessary for the market mechanism to play a more active part.