China View: How Does the Chinese Educational System Work?
MediaProduction
The importance of education in Chinese culture, society, and history is secular. The poem “Urge to Study” by Emperor Zhenzong (968–1022 AD) recites:
“To be wealthy you need not purchase fertile fields, Thousands of tons of corn are to be found in the books.
To build a house you need not set up high beams,
Golden mansions are to be found in the books.
To find a wife you need not worry about not having good matchmakers,
Maidens as beautiful as jade are to be found in the books.
To travel you need not worry about not having servants and attendants,
Large entourages of horses and carriages are to be found in the books.
When a man wishes to fulfill the ambition of his life,
He only needs to diligently study the six classics by the window.”
Chinese literature has often shown the importance and value of education and learning throughout the history of China. The relevance of Confucian teachings is an example of the timelessness of education, and its role in maintaining harmony and stability within society.
While part of the accountability for China's development is given to the rapid economic growth this country has undergone over the course of the 21st century, a share of the responsibility allowing China to progress in socioeconomic terms should be recognized in the educational system. The Chinese educational system is renowned worldwide for being a very structured and strict system, training great scientific minds, and allowing China to progress as an international nation sending its students abroad for their further integration in the global community.
The ups and downs education has overcome throughout China’s contemporary history are multiple, as public opinion in the Mao era used to view education differently compared to public perspectives now, however, what matters is that current educational horizons are expanding, and the Chinese population is more and more educated every year. Being the Chinese territory so vast, the challenges education can face are often related to the urban-rural divide, to the wealth gap between social classes, and also to the language barrier that minorities or rural communities in China may encounter.
Education in China is mostly public, and it is made of nine-year compulsory schooling, comprehensive of six years of primary education and three of junior secondary education. As shown by the diagram below, these are then followed by three years of senior secondary school or three-four years of vocational secondary school, at the end of which students are expected to attend and pass, to the best of their abilities, the National Entrance Examination. In China, this is known as the “gaokao” (高考) and is considered the most important, decisive, but also feared exam, determining whether students will be able to progress into the next phase of education, being university, or whether they will otherwise have to opt for employment. In this sense, the system is organized in a selective manner, as it allows only some of the students who succeed in the exam to access higher education.
“Education in China - Data.” (CREDIT: WENR.WES.ORG)
The “gaokao” has for long been at the center of debate and discussion within Chinese society, because some experts believe it puts some too much pressure on young students and its results do not necessarily ensure a good future career for the student. Also, some argue that students in China are trained to pass tests rather than being taught how to think creatively and how to apply their education in real-life problems. In this sense, it is believed that this type of educational system trains systematic thinking rather than a critical perspective on life.
This, however, does not mean critical thinking is not considered at a higher level of education. In fact, Chinese universities have a very similar approach to the British system, pairing theoretical notions to critical thinking, discussions, and debate. The Chinese Ministry of Education also allows students to study abroad for a period of time to then import foreign-acquired expertise into China. Compared to other countries, China indeed has a very high rate of students going abroad and returning after completing their education in foreign countries rather than staying to reside permanently in these. This ultimately benefits the Chinese economic, social, and political system as it means that students traveling abroad are very likely to come back with up-to-date information, technological notions, and avant-garde ideas.
In the past few decades, the rate of international students coming into China to study at national public universities has increased and this has become a more common phenomenon. Chinese elite universities are listed in the C9 League rank, also referred to as the Chinese Ivy League, which is a project by nine Chinese universities with the aim of promoting the development and prestige of higher education in China. The C9 League is an alliance that has the ultimate goal of competing with the famous US Ivy League universities. The C9 are Fudan University, the Harbin Institute of Technology, Nanjing University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tsinghua University, the University of Science and Technology of China, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and Zhejiang University.
Accessing this elite education, however, has its costs and puts a heavy burden on the shoulders of rural communities which often cannot afford to send students into higher educational stages. According to The Borgen Project, “The income level for rural regions is three times less than that of urban regions, yet residents from both areas are expected to afford tuition, books and other educational fees”, this leads over 60% of rural students to drop out before even completing the compulsory nine years. A common solution to this is the rural-urban migration parents often opt for to provide for their children’s education, leaving their families in rural China to work in urban cities and earn higher salaries. This, however, means children are often left alone or with grandparents, and therefore may be compelled to be employed earlier than planned and drop out of school.
Initiatives such as the 2017 Dell Inc. and Stanford’s Rural Education Action Program (REAP) have contributed to shrinking the educational divide by providing technological support to rural areas, prioritizing education, and online learning opportunities. But, according to the Financial Times, the poor quality of rural education persists and it is currently worsening due to the COVID-19 pandemic as rural students may not have access to online classes like urban students have and may not have to tools to continue distance-learning. Nikkei Asia confirms this will likely widen the rural-urban gap, as “Only half of the rural students had undisrupted access to online classes, according to the study by the China Development Research Foundation[…] Their peers in small cities and towns, meanwhile, had unimpeded attendance rates of 80.1% and 70.3%, respectively.”
“CSIS China Power Project - Education Index.” (CREDIT: CSIS)
The current pandemic certainly puts forward a set of new challenges that add up to the pre-existing issues in the Chinese system of education. These may be addressed in the future, however, the development of a homogeneous education will take longer, and will be heavily dependent on how future rural-urban social policies and economic policies will shape the development of China.
