The starting line of education
Did China’s policy to reduce academic pressure inadvertently widen rural and urban educational opportunities ?
The dawning sky was opaque white and the only sound was a chicken crowing. Yangba, where is known for its natural oxygen bar because of its high forest coverage, located in the southwest of Gansu Province, China, lies at the junction of Gansu, Sichuan and Shanxi provinces, it is known for its natural oxygen bar because of its high forest coverage.
After hearing the chicken crow, Chuanbao woke up in a hurry and without eating, picked up a hoe and went to the field. A shower was forecasted in the afternoon and he needed to plough two acres of land over the weekend to prepare for the spring planting.
When finishing his farm work in the vegetable fields, Chuanbao walked an hour to the tea fields to pick up tea before the rain. If it wasn’t raining, he’d continue to help his mother with other farm work. Because had to work in the city to earn money, Chuanbao's father only returns home a few times a year.
This is a typical Saturday for Chuanbao, who grew up in the small town surrounded by mountains. He’s 15 years old but smaller than average.
Compared to a city kid, he looks around 12 years old.
Like his peers all over the country, Chuanbao is preparing for the Zhongkao in less than two months, which is the academic examination held annually in China to distinguish the junior high school graduates.
Meanwhile on another Saturday morning in Gansu’s provincial capital Lanzhou, Zhang Xiang also 15 is preparing for the same exams. To maximize his chances to enter the ideal high school, his mother has found him a private math tutor. After the math class, Zhang Xiang will attend a calligraphy class, which he has practised since first grade.
At the end of his tutor class, Zhang Xiang will attend the intensive training of the calligraphy class. He practices calligraphy from the first grade. He will have the last calligraphy grade examination at the weekend. If he passes the examination successfully, it means that Zhang Xiang's calligraphy has reached a high level.
Chuanbao and Zhang Xiang will face the same questions and the same admission scoreline to compete with over 200,000 candidates in Gansu for entry to key secondary schools. Their education and futures depend on Zhongkao, but the fact that he Chuanbao was born in the countryside automatically puts him at a disadvantage from his urban counterpart. China has made huge strides in education reform in the past 2 decades, expanding free basic education to all. However, there is a huge disparity between rural and urban students, both in the average number of years of schooling they complete and in their level of educational attainment.
"When Chuanbao went to kindergarten, we paid tuition, but the fees stopped when Chuanbao entered first grade. Said Chuanbao's mother with a rare smile. “We didn't pay tuition or book fees from the first to ninth grade, which is the policy of compulsory education in rural. But if Chuanbao enters high school, we will need to pay the fee.”
Every year hundreds RMB of tuition and book fees, for Chuanbao's family, who depend on the sky for food, are not small expenditures.
Chuanbao is also influenced by “Measures to Reduce the Burden of Primary and Secondary School Students”（Abbreviated as Measures to Reduce the Burden）, which was put in place in 2001 to support disadvantaged students. The heavy burden of homework has seriously affected the physical and mental health of Chinese students. Because of “cramming education”, Chinese students in the compulsory education stage are tired of coping with entrance examinations and various competitions, who have no time for the development of morality, social ability and personal interests. In order to change the overburdened schoolwork of primary and secondary school students, the State Council issued the Decision on the Reform and Development of Basic Education in 2001, proposing that the implementation of the Decision should lighten the burden of schoolwork of primary and secondary school students and ensure the healthy development of students’ personality, body and mind.
China’s education system is notoriously tough and competitive, but reforms are coming into place to ease academic pressures. In the notice issued in December 2018, officials reiterated that students education shouldn't be assigned written homework over 90 minutes and pupils should sleep at least 9 or 10 hours a day, depending on their grade.
Yangba has just one middle school and due to the lack of infrastructure and transportation. Many students need to climb two or three mountains to get there. Therefore most board from Monday to Friday and only go home on weekends. "The school schedule of study and rest is very strict” explains Chuanbao. Even with the upcoming examination, the ninth grade students still maintain the same study and sleep schedule as the seventh and eighth-grade students.
Yangba is a small town with a population of less than 20000, and other than primary and secondary staff, there are no other professional teachers and no options for extra classes after school. When the school day ends until bedtime, the students fill their free time how they choose, some study while others play.
For Zhang Xiang, the weekend is just another opportunity to continue classes.
Zhang Xiang takes eight or nine extracurricular classes a week and in addition to school homework, he does extra homework arranged by his mother and the extracurricular classes.
Since the implementation of Measures to Reduce the Burden, Zhang Xiang’s study at schools has reduced. Previously, junior high school students stayed in school until 7:00 pm, but now they finish at 5:30 pm and students in graduating class are not allowed to take additional classes.
"From elementary school, we gave him a lot of after-school activities, martial arts, football, violin, art, calligraphy and so on. Finally, Zhang Xiang enjoyed and kept going with art and calligraphy. At the beginning of ninth grade, he was under pressure to take the Zhongkao, His energy is focused on core courses. We gave him two extra maths class.”
When asked if these extracurricular tutoring classes would cause Zhang Xiang’s excessive burden, which is on the contrary of Measures to Reduce the Burden, Zhang Xiang’s mother showed a helpless smile: “The number of Zhang Xiang’s extracurricular classes is below average. The top student in his class takes at least 12 extra classes, and his parents found five different math classes to maximize his grades.
"There is no doubt that parents also want to unburden their children, but the pressure is increasing. If you can't get to a good high school, you reduce the probability of getting into a good university. The employment rate of college students is not optimistic these days. He can only enter society and work easily if he tries his best to enter a key high school”
While policies have been put in place to limit study hours of students, the score-oriented exams of the Zhongkao and Gaokao continue. In response to the student's examination system, parents attitudes vary. In the city, Zhang Xiang’s mother places more importance on education and thinks it’s a necessary and positive investment.
After the policies to limit school classes came into place, parents in the city typically still have the access and financial capacity to choose extra classes for their children, while in rural areas even if services are available, money is generally tighter and lifestyles and priorities are different. This has bought an unintended consequence where city kids utilize after school hours to study while rural students are less likely to fill that gap with the study, therefore expanding an already existing gap between urban and rural students.
Chinese students have to take either the high school or the college entrance exam. Studying at a good junior high school facilitates entrance to a good college, which leads to better jobs and, in turn, a more comfortable life. Therefore, the system of exam imposes social divisions of students based on academic performance alone.
In a previous interview, the champion student of the Beijing College Entrance Examination in 2018 said: "Because of the difference in the educational environment and family background, it is increasingly difficult for rural students to move to upgrade their social status." Uneven distribution of education resources also means polarized trend in the development of quality and enrollment rates.
"There is a mainstream saying that doesn't let children fail on the starting line. In fact, rural children have already lost on the starting line. With the development of the market economy and the Internet, urban students under the influence of the burden reduction policy, their starting point with the students in rural areas are getting more and more different."
Gao Xiaoqiang, a professor of education at Northwest Normal University, has been researching the urban-rural education gap for 15 years. Each semester he conducts research between junior high schools in urban and rural.
"From the perspective of social and cultural capital, there is a big gap between the social and cultural education resources that an ordinary child in the city is exposed to and the students who live in a very remote area. In our past research, some teachers also said that rural students are not suitable for quality education. Because in their understanding, quality education and Measures to Reduce the Burden can give children more free play time, less homework, more social activities and opportunities to cultivate personal interests. Even in the class process, teachers need to teach less, the time in classes should return to students to let them build the thinking ability to study, which is the rural teachers' concept of quality education in some of the external manifestations. "
However, the students in rural can't study with less burden. Because the system of the selective examination remains unchanged, they must use more intensive and cruel training, doing a lot of repetitive exercises about exam to have the same competitiveness as urban students.
Education is the best way to change the destiny of mankind. It makes people understand the truth, let people know more about love, and let people cherish their lives more.
For any child who wants to change his or her destiny, the rational choice is education. This belief is why Zhang Xiang’s mother insists that her son is run between various extra classes in his spare time. The new policy to relieve study pressure actually increased Zhang Xiang’s classes. But he rarely complains even though during summer vacation, he and his parents travelled to Beijing for a painting competition, and also took the time to visit Tsinghua University - where Zhang Xiang dreams of studying in the future.
Two weeks after leaving Yangba Town, Chuanbao message me to tell me about his score on the senior high school entrance mock exam, it was 600 points. If he scores 600 points in Zhongkao, it’s enough to go to the best school in the county.
In another message, Chuanbao asked "Should I go to high school? If I can't find a job after graduating from college, I’d prefer to learn a trade and make money early."
