OPINION> Liu Shinan
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OPINION> Liu Shinan
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Strong case for banning extra classes
By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-22 07:58
My granddaughter envies her younger cousin for the boy has gone to the countryside with his ayi or housemaid for the summer vacation, while the fifth-grade primary school pupil has to stay in the city to attend extra-curricular classes. The boy has not been enrolled in school yet, though he has finished his kindergarten "pre-school education". Ignoring my protest, my daughter decided to send the girl to "summer vacation courses" - what an ironical term - of "Olympic math", English and other subjects. My poor granddaughter has to go to such training venues three hours a day, five days a week. All her schoolmates and all primary and high school students in China's cities do the same - to different extents. The courses are not compulsory. But actually they are compulsory - in a certain sense - for no parent can afford to keep away their kids from them. They do not want them to lag behind other children in the competition. All Chinese students face competition ever since they start school. It is said that competition starts in kindergarten, where toddlers are told to "learn better than your little friends" to enroll in a "good primary school". All these "good schools" are officially called "key schools", to which the education authorities attach greater importance. These schools have more learned teachers, boast a more rigorous "school spirit" and have seen higher rates of their students being enrolled into higher-level schools. As a part of the compulsory education system, primary school graduates qualify for junior high school automatically, without sitting for a test, that is, theoretically. The fact, however, is that there is some form of examination, which determines whether your kid can enter a "key school". To guarantee that their kids get a seat in a "key junior high school", some parents send their children to attend extra-curricular courses so that they can beat their peers in these schools' unofficial enrolment examination. However, only a small number of students can succeed in entering key schools in the end. Therefore, most children actually end up giving company to the few lucky ones in their foray toward the prestigious schools. Or rather, they fall victim to the extra-curricular courses, which in fact have become a lucrative business for teachers to earn extra money.
Most parents know the harm the malady causes but they cannot do anything to avoid it. Which parents would dare to keep their kids out of the extra-curricular courses? We don't want to see our child toil under the pressure and we hate Olympic math, but we have no option unless the State (government) bans the practice, most parents say. They are right. The government should ban it. The Chengdu municipal government has officially banned the Olympic math course. It is a welcome move. I hope other cities will follow suit. But the move did not hit the nail on the head. The vital part of the problem is the practice of dividing schools into key and non-key ones. If all "key schools" are forbidden to enroll students through tests, there will be no demand for extra-curricular courses. All schools should only enroll students from the nearby community. Then, a new problem may arise: Children who live near a "key school" will be luckier than other kids. To address this inequality, my suggestion is to move some teachers from these schools to other schools. Some people may think this idea is ridiculous. They would ask: "Isn't it an arbitrary move to lower the academic level of the prestigious schools?" My answer to this accusation is a "why not?" E-mail: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn (China Daily 07/22/2009 page9) |
