Phil Hand Aug 12, 2011:

Could be, but not here Absolutely. 素质 can mean a lot of things - quality of character, ability to learn, physique, level of political indoctrination, etc. etc. etc. I don't think there's any one "literal" meaning of the word. Here, the meaning is clear because there are three terms in a row, and two of them clearly mean the same thing. It would be really weird to interpret 素质 here as meaning something different. In a sentence like 他没有文化，而且素质很差 you can see a contrast of education on the one hand and character on the other; but in your sentence that's not the meaning the author is going for.
I can't stress this enough. It is therefore WRONG to translate 素质 as something which it doesn't mean in this sentence. Importing irrelevant meanings of words into your translated sentence is not literal translation; it is not close translation; it is bad translation.
The process of translation begins with understanding the text. We all understand this text - Carlis got it straight away. Now, the only thing to do is to write an English text that means the same thing. Allowing yourself to be distracted by lexicographical arguments will only make your translation weak and inaccurate.

Carol C.W. CHUNG (asker) Aug 12, 2011:

what is meant vs. what is interpreted Thank you for starting a discussion on this. Is this a problem of what is meant vs. what is interpreted here? Please allow me be very specific with the meanings of the terms here because it is a piece of academic writing on education. We may interpret the words 素质 and 文化程度 as referring to the level of education. But could the speaker (a teacher) mean different things? If we get really literal with the meaning of these two words, could 素质 be "personal quality" and 文化程度 be "the level of literacy"?

Jinhang Wang Aug 11, 2011:

小学的指示 is a typo for 小学的知识

Phil Hand Aug 11, 2011:

I think Carlis is right in his interpretation. You have to be careful with 素质, because it often means much more than education, but here it looks like it is referring specifically to schooling. That said, "level of education" is much easier on the ear. You could also use "schooling".
In this area there are a lot of problems with the educational input that children get at home. A lot of parents just don't have the schooling, they don't have the education, they didn't finish school themselves. They don't know a lot of what children need to learn in school. They never even reached the level of understanding expected of someone who finishes primary school. They would just parrot whatever the teachers told them. (Rather British English there, adapt if you write in an American style.)