Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Chinese Educational System

This is an interesting article written by an Atlanta-area 10th grader. It makes some interesting points about the Chinese educational system that would never be tolerated in the States, unfortunately, since I think some of them might be valuable. School is very competitive in China, especially as one prepares for high school placement exams and college placement exams. I think that something like 11% of high school students in China continue on to college. That's not because the remaining 89% weren't good enough to get in (by our standards)...it's that spots are so competitive that only the top 11% of the high school population are lucky enough to get in.

While we were in China, our guide Rose told us that even some elementary students live at school during the week and come home on the weekends to study. She said that when she was in high school, she awoke at 5 AM, studied for an hour or two before school, went to school from 7:30 AM to 6 PM each day, came home for dinner and usually studied until at least midnight.

And here's another related article, about China's middle class and the need for kids to be competitive to get ahead (at least in their parents' minds). This article is from the May 2008 National Geographic Magazine, which is completely devoted to China. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it...it's a terrific read!

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