Predicament and Improvement of the Educational Poverty Alleviation Policy: A Qualitative Study of Villages/Communities in Contiguous Destitute Areas

Education is a fundamental way to block intergenerational transmission of poverty. Contiguous destitute areas are the main fields of poverty alleviation. The research conducts a survey focusing on the implementation of the educational poverty alleviation policy in contiguous destitute areas on the consolidation stage, sampling from policy executors of the village level and the service objects. The results show that the policy has made remarkable achievements, such as financial support of poor students, strict ″zero drop-out″ goal in compulsory education and vocational training of poor grown-ups. But problems still commonly exist, such as high dependence on the policy, ″hidden drop-out″ in rural areas, low absorption and transformation in intellectual poverty alleviation and limited resources for special education. Policy improvements should focus on establishing flexible educational aid policy, strengthening the quality of education in rural schools, establishing a long-term mechanism for intellectual poverty alleviation for poor grown-ups and providing sufficient resources for rural special kids.