How Should Education in Rural Areas be Reformed?

Abstract

Rural areas are the product of the development of productivity to a certain stage. Generally, rural areas are geographical areas located outside of cities and towns. The Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines the term “rural” as “...not including all population, housing, and territory in urban areas. Anything that is not in a city is regarded as a rural area” (HRSA, 2021). From the perspective of production methods, rural areas refer to “a place where people mainly engaged in agricultural production live together” (The Dictionary Editing Office of the Institute of Languages, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2005). When productivity has not yet reached a high level of development, there are still essential differences between urban and rural areas. Affected by economic transformation and geographical location, rural economic growth has been restricted. According to United Nations statistics, in 2018, the rural population accounted for more than half of the global population, and the rural poor accounted for 79% of the worldwide poverty population; the poverty rate in rural areas was more than three times that of urban areas. Of the 2 billion people in the world who do not have basic health services, 70% live in rural areas; the ratio of energy access in rural areas is about 75%, while that in urban areas is 96% (United Nations General Assembly, 2018).