Join us this Friday, December 14, as we invite former Rotary scholar Scott Rozelle, holder of the Helen Farnsworth Endowed Professorship at Stanford University, to discuss the invisible problems facing education in rural China.

In Scott's talk, which previews his book CHINA'S INVISIBLE CRISIS, he will seek to explain how China's poor, rural interior may ultimately determine the nation's fate. Drawing on his work of the past decade and more, he will try to illuminate how pervasive barriers to health and education have resulted in a human capital crisis. Rural children are shown to have poor nutrition and poor health and this is one of the primary determinants of the low quality of their education. And, it is a problem that begins at home when children are infants and toddlers. Why has the government not addressed this problem? His argument is not that the government is not concerned. In fact, China's government has put a lot of investment into rural schooling over the past two decades. Rather, the remaining problems are largely invisible and this has limited the response.

In the talk, Scott will try to draw comparisons with other countries that have gone through this stage of development and succeeded or failed. Indeed, he argues that as wages in China rise, and manufacturing either moves to other parts of the developing world or automates, hundreds of millions of workers may be left behind since they are ill-equipped for jobs in the new Chinese knowledge economy. Can China's economy transform itself to look like prosperous Japan or South Korea—both have successfully transitioned from manufacturing economies to ones rooted in finance and hi-tech—or will it become more like stagnant Mexico, South Africa or Brazil.

Fresh Start Rotary Club of Shanghai is a member club of a global network of 1.2 million who envision a world where people unite to create lasting change. We support social enterprise and help empower entrepreneurs with a social purpose.

We warmly welcome all to attend, listen, and ask questions.