Education

Students remain slaves to exams

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-29 10:28

The school education in the city, like everywhere else, is known for excessive study load and tough, sometimes unnecessary, exams.

The Beijing municipal education commission laid out rules in 2008 stipulating that schools are not allowed to organize any kind of training classes.

Yet extracurricular classes remain ubiquitous.

Although Beijing's policy is for children to go to the nearest school, each middle school has its own enrollment mechanism which results in children taking different exams to increase their chances of entering good schools.

In October, the Chengdu government banned the so-called "Olympic mathematics" that was linked to the middle school entrance exam.

Yet the Olympic mathematics score is still a very important measure when it comes to whether a student is accepted at a school in Beijing.

METRO reporter Wang Wei recently spoke with Sun Hongyan, president of China Youth and Children Research Center, about the city's obsession with exams.

Is there a solution to extracurricular classes?

The pressure of middle school entrance exam is the major reason for incessant extracurricular classes.

The pressure comes from the strong aspiration of parents to have their children admitted by top middle schools, which are a gateway to prestigious universities and a decent job.

The most important thing is to change the society's mentality that only students with excellent marks are good students and companies only employ graduates from top universities.

Otherwise, students as well as parents will become victims of entrance examinations.

Many parents call for a return to the old unified examination.

The reason behind parents calling for resumption of the old system is due to today's lack of transparency in the enrollment mechanism at each school.

It is not fair that some students are admitted because their parents can pay a large sponsorship fee or their parents have relationship with someone who is in charge at school.

Parents believe it is not completely reasonable to use only one unified exam to measure a student's capability.

Yet they think it is a fair way to allocate educational resources.

But I think it is not a good solution.

The reason for cancellation of the unified examination system was to alleviate pressure on students and to promote quality education.

If we return to the old system, it will again add more pressure to children.

The best way is for our educational authorities to establish a fair and open evaluation system that accurately reflects students' abilities.

Do you think Beijing should also cancel Olympic maths?

Whether a student is suitable to study Olympic mathematics depends on his or her personal interests and ability.

Olympic maths is a good subject for gifted students or students who are interested in studying math.

But it doesn't fit everyone and it shouldn't be a measurement for middle school entrance.

I think Chengdu city's conduct should be encouraged.

What is the biggest problem in youth education in Beijing?

Based on the study by China Youth and Children Research Center, more than 60 percent of youths in China don't get enough sleep.

The biggest problems facing them is excessive pressure from study and parents expectations, which result in very limited time to play and poor social experience.