Problems in Chinese Education System and steps taken to improve the system - Essay Example

?Running head: CHINESE EDUCATION SYSTEM Problems in Chinese Education System and steps taken to improve the system of client> taken> Problems in Chinese Education System and steps taken to improve the system This paper discusses about the Education System prevailing in China, the flaws it carries, and how these flaws are being countered. Introduction China is the most populous country in the world, with an undereducated labor force. China has the largest illiterate and semi literate population in the world. Labor is China’s primary resource. Only education can develop this resource. But the current education system is actually destroying this useful resource, which is going useless for the nation (Yue & Hong, 2006). Nine years of education is made compulsory in China at preliminary and junior secondary level. However, there is very low government spending on education. Teaching resources are not sufficient as the enrolments in schools (Zhou, 2006) . China’s National Auditing Office recently released the 2003 auditing results of 18 universities in China. It was found out that there were violations of financial regulations in these universities. Furthermore, when university professor Mr. Sun Guangwen and former secretary Lin Mu were interviewed about China’s education system, they identified three major problems which are unequal opportunity, expensive tuition and difficult standards for admission. There are also issues regarding course material and teaching methods of China’s education system (Yue & Hong, 2006). Professor Sun Guangwen further expressed the dilemma of high tuition fees for students. The tution fee varies among different departments depending on which major is chosen. The science major is relatively expensive. Apart from tuition fees, students also have to pay for food and course books. The sum of all the expenses spent on education is large. The annual expense of a college student is as high as farmer’s total gross income over several years. Former secretary Lin Mu states that the education funds provided in the budget by Chinese accounts for only 53 percent of the education expenses. The rest 47 percent has to be provided by students in the form of tuition and other fees. According to survey of China’s Academy of Social Sciences, the average education related fees of universities, high schools and elementary schools account for 30 to 60 percent of a family’s income. To the low income families residing in China who accounts up to 80 percent of Chinas population, education fees are a secondary expense to food expense (Yue & Hong, 2006). Lin Mu has identified an emerging concept of “education commercialization” in China. Schools are now a commercial business; they only keep raising their fees and emptying poor family’s pockets. Even the free schools now charge some amount of money. Professor Sun regards commercialization as wrong and has drawbacks. Commercialization is based on making money. This increases burden towards students. Schools are also required to pay bonuses to teachers. Some schools pay really high bonuses. There are three levels in a school. The first level includes the president, vice president, secretary and vice secretary, deans and assisted deans. These people are paid 50,000 yuan or US$ 6000 per year. The second level of staff is paid 40,000 yuan or US$ 5000 and the third level is paid 30,000 yuan or US$ 4000 per year. All this money is coming from students (Yue & Hong, 2006). Through commercialization, universities and colleges have started branding their institutes which attracts students so that they can get better jobs later. Another way for these institutes to make money is by offering short courses, training classes or post graduate certificate programs. These are affordable as the teachers only care about money. As a result, the quality of education is seriously suffering (Yue & Hong, 2006). An expert once estimated and came on a conclusion, based on the ratio and people’s income, the expense of China’s universities is the highest in the world. Professor Sun is of the opinion that government should come forward in this regard and provide sufficient funds in the education department. If government reduces education fees, then this would burden the universities. They have to take loans to meet their expenses or either offer classes to collect money from students, in short, go for industrialization (Yue & Hong, 2006). Lin Mu considers the second problem as the inequity in education which worsens social inequity. If the situation of social inequity worsens in a state, the rich would become richer and the poor would go poorer. The children of low income farmers will find it more difficult to access the education because of high fees. Because of social inequity, the poor will always have difficult accessing the education. The poor will always remain poor, from parent to child. A farmer’s son will always remain a farmer and a worker’s son will always be worker. (Yue & Hong, 2006). Another injustice is the physical location. Partial funding is provided by local government. Education funding in Shanghai used to be ten times more than in Henan Province. Now it has reached 50 times. This issue will affect the later generations also. The main issue lies in the government. The government does not think education as the right of the citizens, but considers a privilege for a few. Education is regarded as a profit making industry. The environment is autocratic, not flexible to make any changes (Yue & Hong, 2006). Lin Mu thinks the content and methods of education have become rigid and dull. Some books mislead and give incorrect historical information to students. There are issues discussed in the textbooks that are not only useless but also harmful to students’ minds, as in the issue of class struggle. It is a big issue to inculcate in the students the unreal and false thoughts (Yue & Hong, 2006). The Chinese educational system is worst in producing workers with innovative thoughts and skills. People can memorize the existing facts but do not have the curiosity and enthusiasm to discover new facts. They can execute orders but cannot make orders or instruct others. They do not have the ability to get work from people. They cannot be leaders. They will always be followers. They cannot even help their employers in inventing new ways of doing things (Huang). When on a Chinese website, the following flaws in China’s education system were discussed: -too many students in one class -Overworked teachers -Military-like environment of schools -Overworked students -High emphasis on rote memorization instead of creative skills -Resistance to change (www.chinaexpat.com) Professor Sun believes that in order to solve the problems regarding the education system, one has to change the entire system. The committee system existing in China’s universities should be abolished. Then only students can be educated with high moral standards and scientific thoughts (Yue & Hong, 2006). China has shifted its focus towards implementing new methods of teaching. The quality of compulsory education is improved by relieving burden on students and focusing on quality oriented education. In order to deal with unequal school fees, the country has asked to implement unified fee standards and costs for textbooks in compulsory education. The Chinese government has allotted few billion yuan to renovate run-down school buildings in rural areas in the next few years (China Embarks on Basic Education Reform). China has the world’s largest higher education system. Its enrolment increased from 1 million students in 1997 to over 5 million in 2009, along with doubling of number of institutes offering degree programmes. This growth is because of huge amount of investment in higher education reform programme that started in 1999. Almost 1.5 percent of GDP is now being spent on education system, with a purpose to come to the level of western systems. On 2nd February 2010, President of Yale University, Professor Richard Levin, predicted that China’s universities would be amongst the best in the world within one generation (Ryan, 2011). Change is occurring not only at the structural level but also at the individual universities level. Universities are now experimenting different models and approaches to improve the teaching methodology, from management and administration and methods of evaluation of teaching quality to types of programmes, curriculum, teaching, and assessment. These reforms have brought improvements in the university curricula, evaluation measure, standard of research to produce quality researchers and publications, effectiveness of teaching to develop highly skilled graduates (Ryan, 2011). External reforms involve interacting with international colleagues and universities. The external reforms have provided a platform for intercultural contact and mutual learning. This interaction flows between Chinese universities and universities abroad. There are now research collaborations taking place between Chinese and foreign universities as well as exchange of faculty and students. It is estimated that four out of five universities in UK have snow strategic links with Chinese universities and academics, and according to UK International Unit in January 2010, the volume of UK-China co-authored research papers is doubling every five years and numbered about 2500 in 2008 (Ryan, 2011). The English fever phenomenon in China over the past decade or two is now being matched by Chinese fever outside China. In 2006, 30 million people worldwide were studying Mandarin abroad. The numbers of international students flowing between China and rest of the world is increasing both the ways. The number of international students going to Chinese universities each year to study mostly from Korea, Japan and America is more than the number of Chinese students leaving each year to study abroad (Ryan, 2011). In order to form the lifelong education system in China, the Central Council of Communist Party of China (CCCPC) and the State Council held the first National Talents Conference in December 2003. Here, talents are referred to those who have creative, innovative and analytical skills possessing in them, making valued economic social and cultural developments in the society. It deformed the traditional concept of stressed academic talents. The conference supported the strategy of reviving China through talents. Reviving China through science and education became a fundamental way of constructing a learning society in China. China has also achieved lifelong learning education system through globalization. Globalization is a major theme of today’s world. It is an economic phenomenon which has spread from the West throughout the whole world. Knowledge creation and acquisition becomes one of the driving forces of global markets. Through globalization, a lifelong learning environment can be created successfully (Morgan & Wu, 2011). The advent of education reforms gave rise to establishment of private universities. As number of universities grew, demand for quality education also increased. A major effort in improving quality was Project 211, launched in 1995. One hundred universities were selected to get special funding. In 1998, another project, Project 985, was launched. This project aimed at encouraging 10 chinese universities to be the best in the world. These two government funded projects made a remarkable difference in the quality of education in China (Wang, 2010). In 2001, China was officially admitted to World Trade Organization, which provided a great platform for interaction with other countries and to promote Chinese education in the world (Wang, 2010). Conclusion Kristof believes that China’s education system is improving dramatically. He is of the opinion that some of the Confucian reverence to be used in education, and a greater dose of equality to be used (Kristof, 2011). In order to further reform the education system in China, Premier Wen Jiabao chaired an executive committe that drafted an education plan for 2008. It is a grand plan that reflects a balance of interests of various groups. While the plan encourages students to be more creative, innovative and independent, it collides with cultural norms and values that cherish obedience as a virtue. Ethical issues go hand in hand with education reforms. However, such a cultural collision can be resolved through mutual efforts and time (Wang, 2010). References (n.d.). Retrieved June 4, 2011, from www.chinaexpat.com: http://www.thechinaexpat.com/whats-wrong-with-chinas-secondary-education-system/ China Embarks on Basic Education Reform. (n.d.). Retrieved june 5, 2011, from http://www.edu.cn/20011029/3007230.shtml Huang, Y. (n.d.). The Problem with China's Education System. Retrieved June 4, 2011, from http://brianbarrons.typepad.com/my_weblog/the-problem-with-chinas-education-system.html Kristof, N. (2011, January 15). China’s Education System. The Opinion Pages . Lin, J. (1999). Social transformation and private education in China. USA: Greenwood Publishing Inc. Morgan, J., & Wu, B. (2011). Higher education reform in China. New York: Routledge. Ryan, J. (2011). China's Higher Education Reform and Internationalisation. New York: Routledge. Wang, G.-H. (2010). China Currents. Retrieved June 5, 2011, from http://www.chinacenter.net/China_Currents/spring_2010/cc_wang.htm Yue, Q., & Hong, C. (2006, June 6). Significant Problems in China's Existing Education System. The Epoch Times . Zhou, L. (2006). Liberalization of Trade in Educational Service and Its Impact on the Right to Education. Germany: GRIN. Read More