民国时期福建乡村的华侨中小学校

Overseas Chinese Middle and Primary Schools in the Countryside of Fujian Province during the Republican Period

近代以后,新式教育逐渐传入福建,但由于各级政府财力所限,基础教育投入不及广大乡村。而旅居海外的福建华侨返乡兴学之举则在一定程度上补其不足,为乡村的适龄儿童提供了受教育的场所,并以其兴办新学的教育实践,在长期处于落后状态的福建乡村地区发挥了重要的教育示范和导向作用,推进了新式教育在乡村的发展,一定程度上缩减了城乡教育的差距,从而富有成效地充当了福建教育现代化的先导。

When the new style education was introduced into Fujian in modem China, since local governments had not enough money to develop education, the elementary education could not spread all over the countryside. However, overseas Chinese from Fujian returned to their hometown and ran schools which resolved the problem of lack of funding and provided education for the rural children. Moreover, their practice of running new style schools played an important role in the countryside education which had lagged behind for a long time. They advanced the new style education in the countryside and reduced the disparity of education in urban and rural areas to a certain extent, thus effectively acted as the forerunner of Fujian modem education.