Objective To study the feasibility of enforcing immunization certificate check before children enroll in primary schools or kindergartens in Guizhou Province. Methods Quantitative and qualitative studies were conducte...Objective To study the feasibility of enforcing immunization certificate check before children enroll in primary schools or kindergartens in Guizhou Province. Methods Quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted. The multi-stage and cluster sampling approach was adopted for the quantitative part of the study. A questionnaire was designed and 996 children and their keepers were interviewed. Principals, doctors or teachers of the primary schools, directors and child care nurses of kindergarten, and staff of immunization agencies were invited to take part in 12 focus group discussions; meanwhile, face-to-face individual in-depth interviews with 16 officials of the Health, Education and Governmental Departments at various levels were conducted. Results The total number of subjects was 996. 16.7% of the children in the study completed all the procedures of the National Immunization Programme. 34.3% of them had immunization certificates while the remainder 44.7% registered in immunization agencies. Factors, including the migrant children, doubt about vaccine efficiency, mother’s occupation and educational background, knowledge of the National Immunization Programme on targeted vaccines, played an important role in obtaining or not immunization certificates. 95% of the keepers interviewed thought the immunization certificates were useful; 94.8% of them considered the check was critical while only 3.6% of them thought it unnecessary. The first reason from those who found it unnecessary was that they feared that repeated immunization might affect their children’s health. The second reason was the cost of immunization, which some of them could not afford to pay. However, the Health Department expressed a favorable attitude to the checking scheme. Though the Education Department agreed that the scheme was essential, they worried that it would affect the enrollment rate.Conclusion In spite of the difficulty in administering immunization certificate check, the effort would be rewarding for raising the immunization coverage rate among the children in Guizhou Province.展开更多
In many developing countries,low population density may be a major reason for low school participation in rural areas,and the problem is likely to worsen with rapid urbanization.However,few studies have investigated e...In many developing countries,low population density may be a major reason for low school participation in rural areas,and the problem is likely to worsen with rapid urbanization.However,few studies have investigated empirically the role of population density in rural education,especially the moderating effect of population density on the outcomes of education policies.This study aims to fill this gap in the literature.From 1999 through the early 2000s,China launched a set of major nationwide policies aimed at universalizing 9-year compulsory education in rural areas.Using difference-in-differences and triple difference strategies,we show that the policies significantly increased the probability of junior high school enrollment of rural children and,more importantly,these policies were more effective in densely populated regions.These findings confirm the imporance of population density to rural education.展开更多
文摘Objective To study the feasibility of enforcing immunization certificate check before children enroll in primary schools or kindergartens in Guizhou Province. Methods Quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted. The multi-stage and cluster sampling approach was adopted for the quantitative part of the study. A questionnaire was designed and 996 children and their keepers were interviewed. Principals, doctors or teachers of the primary schools, directors and child care nurses of kindergarten, and staff of immunization agencies were invited to take part in 12 focus group discussions; meanwhile, face-to-face individual in-depth interviews with 16 officials of the Health, Education and Governmental Departments at various levels were conducted. Results The total number of subjects was 996. 16.7% of the children in the study completed all the procedures of the National Immunization Programme. 34.3% of them had immunization certificates while the remainder 44.7% registered in immunization agencies. Factors, including the migrant children, doubt about vaccine efficiency, mother’s occupation and educational background, knowledge of the National Immunization Programme on targeted vaccines, played an important role in obtaining or not immunization certificates. 95% of the keepers interviewed thought the immunization certificates were useful; 94.8% of them considered the check was critical while only 3.6% of them thought it unnecessary. The first reason from those who found it unnecessary was that they feared that repeated immunization might affect their children’s health. The second reason was the cost of immunization, which some of them could not afford to pay. However, the Health Department expressed a favorable attitude to the checking scheme. Though the Education Department agreed that the scheme was essential, they worried that it would affect the enrollment rate.Conclusion In spite of the difficulty in administering immunization certificate check, the effort would be rewarding for raising the immunization coverage rate among the children in Guizhou Province.
文摘In many developing countries,low population density may be a major reason for low school participation in rural areas,and the problem is likely to worsen with rapid urbanization.However,few studies have investigated empirically the role of population density in rural education,especially the moderating effect of population density on the outcomes of education policies.This study aims to fill this gap in the literature.From 1999 through the early 2000s,China launched a set of major nationwide policies aimed at universalizing 9-year compulsory education in rural areas.Using difference-in-differences and triple difference strategies,we show that the policies significantly increased the probability of junior high school enrollment of rural children and,more importantly,these policies were more effective in densely populated regions.These findings confirm the imporance of population density to rural education.
