Chinese Education

On Friday (which was Thursday night for you folks!), we went to Beijing Number 12 Secondary School. The school is for students who wish to pursue an education beyond the nine compulsory years of education, which begin at about age 5. The school we were in was a model/sample school, which means that it is probably one of the best secondary schools in Beijing, perhaps even in China. The school has 2000 students between the ages of 15 and 18. There is about 160 (plus) staff. Anyone going to secondary school (above and beyond the 9 years) is trying to get into a university, and almost 100% of the students in this school go on to college/university.

Just to give you an idea - every student must take an entrance examination to get into colleges or university in China. The exams take place over the course of several days, and the pressure on the students to perform well is intense. Students come out of the exams weeping from the strain. And on a side note, they recently mandated that you can't have air conditioning in the urban school exams, to make it "equal" with the rural schools, who don't have air conditioning. Right. Because that's the only thing that is different between the schools in the cities and the rural provinces. In Beijing and Shanghai, 70-80% of students who take the entrance examinations pass, whereas in the provinces, there's a 30% pass rate. And it's the air conditioning. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "no child left behind", doesn't it?

Anyway, students in China take three main courses in their schools: Math, Chinese and English. At this school they have one slot in the afternoons for an elective, which could include one of the following: Something call Science, which encompasses physics, chemistry and biology, or something call Art, which encompasses history, philosophy and politics. At Beijing No. 12, students could also take psychology (the only other course that was mentioned specifically), and are required to take something called "Body Shaping", which is a combination of dance, martial arts and ballet. As part of their graduation requirements, they have to create and perform a group dance, and in order to receive passing marks, their peers have to say it's good.

A typical day goes something (sort of) like this:

7:35: school starts. Periods are 40 minutes (which is shorter than at other schools)

They will have two periods, and then at 9am they will have their morning body exercise (which is graded).

Periods 3 and 4 will follow soon after, and then there's "eye exercises" after that, to prevent becoming near sighted. I haven't decided whether this is successful - I see glasses a lot, but then I see a lot of people without, so it's hard to tell.

Between 12 and 2 they have break/lunch/nap, and then between 2 - 3:30 there are two more periods. After 3:30 would be the elective class. If they live on campus (at this school about 1000 students do), they would do sports. We saw students playing basketball, mostly, and some doing some dance stuff, but we were there during break, rather than during the sports period later in the day. We saw facilities for track, soccer, swimming, and dance. Others who don't live on campus would go home. In the evenings between 6:30 and 9:30 is a self-study period to do homework. Some teachers stay on campus to help the students work.

Students stay in one classroom, and teachers travel from room to room instead of the other way around. Teachers teach about two classes a day, but they have a total of 120 students.

What's unclear to me is how that really works - if they are really only taking 3 courses, plus an elective, it seems like there are too many periods in the day. There wasn't enough time to ask enough questions, really.

Students are in school from 1 September until 10 July. They have a six week break in the summer, plus two one week breaks, one in October (Independence day) and one in May (National Workers Day). They also have occasional days here and there, much like our Columbus Day (surely not Chiang Kai Shek day?).

We asked about discipline: apparently they have a problem with mobile phones, the way we do. Teachers can take away the phones until graduation (!! Imagine trying that in the States!). There is a problem with girlfriends and boyfriends (and that was as explicit as the assistant principal at the school would get. I'm assuming there's more to it than just "you can't have a boyfriend/girlfriend", but you know what happens when I assume, right?), and parents and teachers work together to stop it, because it interferes with studying. (remember the exams?) We asked about drug problems, and were told "No.", with no further explanation. Fighting is a problem, however.

There's more about teachers in China, and I will keep you posted on that later. I've bored you enough.


Chinese/English phrase of the day: "Do Not Distrub" (read it carefully!)