College Entrance Exam in China

Essay

Students selection for university in China

By

Zimin Sun

Introduction

E ducation is a very important thing to an individual or the whole country. Today, with the developing education system, many more students can get their higher education around the world than several decades ago. But it is still not an easy thing in China.

Because of the specific background in China, millions of students graduate from high school have to face with the biggest challenge they have never met-the college entrance examination. Students, even teachers are always complaining about the ways of students selection for universities in China. The problem of students selection for university is a major problem about higher education in China.

The essay is talking about the students selection for universities in China, I will talk about the students selections situation in China from thousands years ago to now, and I will explain how and why it was formed. It will also contains some predictions and constructive suggestions based on the researchers’ statics and hypothesis.

Main body

The college entrance examination has a long history. Date back to 605 B.C. , the emperor of Sui dynasty, first came up with the idea that is to set a standard test for intellectual selections. The people who were selected could have their higher education and the chances to work for the royalty. This kind of test named “Ke Ju”, known as the ancient college entrance examination. As time passed , the test was developing. Before 820, the test only had one subject-writing, the emperor later found that one-subject-test could not perfectly distinguish the intellectual from normal people, so the emperor of the Tang dynasty changed the test. The new test changed into two categories. One was still called “Ke Ju” ,the other one called “Wu Ju”. Both of them had three subjects. “Ke Ju” had poem writing, composition writing , couplet writing and “Ke Ju” had horse riding , arrow shooting , wrestling . These series of tests were far better than the original one. Then it came to Song dynasty. During the Song dynasty , the ancient society was becoming more and more complicated. Some rich people passed the tests because they knew the questions to the tests before it began through giving the money to the invigilator. These kinds of actions made the quality of the intellectuals poorer and poorer. Later , the emperor found this situation ,then a complicated series of laws about the test came out, such as “the test paper is top secret” “ whoever leak out the answers will be killed”. This really renovated the whole education system.
As time went by , the population in China was growing and growing , only one examination hall or one crew to make out questions and correct the papers were not enough. Then in 1386 ,the emperor of Ming dynasty , set a brand new test system. The students did not have to go to the capital for the test. Each province had it’s own spot for the test, but the tests were still in one standard, across the whole country. These kinds of tests called “Ke Ju” ended in 1905, Qing dynasty, lasted for almost 1500 years.

Then we came to middle times. There were no tests between 1905 and 1952. Because of seclusion policies of Qing dynasty, China lagged behind a lot in just decades , that cause very serious consequence. There were a lot of invasions and wars in China from the 1840s to the 1950s. China lost huge amount of money and valuable ancient artifacts during this period of time. What was worse, schools were interrupted by the wars so that they had to be closed. In this almost 100 years, China had almost no education, millions of illiterates appeared. This had massive negative effects on the Chinese’s education. In 1949, the People’s Republic of China was founded, soon after this, in 1952 , the college entrance exam came back. Due to the wars, the development of education was blocked, there were only dozens of colleges or universities. It did not meet the need of the students. Unfortunately, the education was interrupted again in 1967, Ze Dong Mao,the chairman of China made hugh mistakes at that time. He made some policies, such as “Students should go to work rather than go to school”, “Ancient things should be demolished”, “ Teachers and professors are our enemies”. These policies resulted in all of the schools closed, brain drained.

Modern times came. In 1978 , the college entrance exam really came back. 6.1million participated in this exam, but only 6.5 percent of these students successfully entered into universities. Although the country realized that we need many more, they could not build many in very short time. The students successfully entered the universities each year were only a few.

From the statistics (To see the statistics, please refer to appendix 1), we can see that every year a large number of students participated in the college entrance exam, but no more than 60 percent of the participants could enter the university, that is to say, 40 percent of the students would fail however hard they studied. It was very cruel. The current situation is too many students want to enter the university. The head of the ministry of education said：“Although the number of universities is growing rapidly , the amount of the universities does not meet the amount of the students.” Many students will not have the chances to study in university.

Why the situation is like this?

First , the population. As we all know , China has the greatest population in the world. Also, we have the largest number of high school students around the world. These years, we have about 10 million students graduated from high school every year. Now we have about 1,200 universities or colleges in China. If we need all these 10 million students entered universities or colleges , each university or college will have more than 8,000 new students on average every year. This is impossible for a normal size school. What is worse , due to the low acceptance rate , many return students (students reattending classes after failing the college entrance exam) appears, that made the amount of the students attend the college entrance exam even bigger. This problem is very hard to solve. Imagine, even if China have the universities as many as those in the US, we are still not able to have all of the students entered university.

Second , the teaching methods. In China , students from middle school to high school or high school to university will take standard examinations, especially the college entrance exams. The students have to study the subjects for the examination. Each students has the same schedule, they can not have the chance to choose or reject the subjects. There is almost no elective class in high school, that is to say, the students in high school study just for the exam. What is worse, to make more students enter the university , the teachers have to force the students to learn, the students’ lives of high school. As a result, many negative effects came out.
In this case, the high school education can not be named as the “real education”, the curricula are just like the class special for the college entrance examination. Students have to work on their subjects all day long, they have no time to have a part-time job or take some extra activities after school or even relax themselves, the students can only learn the knowledge and exam skills at school. This is a tragedy. Due to this situation, the students ability to deal with the examination is higher and higher , so that the college examination is becoming more and more difficult, sometimes the questions in the examination are even more difficult than those in university. The situation about the study and the exam is going worse and worse in the long run.

Third , the ways of students selection before university. In China, students from middle school to high school or high school to university will take standard examinations.(primary school used to be). This is not really a good way to assess a student. Students have their own interest , they should have the right to choose the subjects or take part in the activities that they really like, especially for the junior students. Because of the standard exams , schools have standard curricula , activities are standardized, everything is standardized. Students are studying for the standardized examinations. “Due to the college entrance examination, schools are like factories with one standard , students are like goods, factories produce qualified goods for their customers-the universities.” ,a teacher form a high school helplessly said.

Due to all these three reasons, we can see why the high school students’ situation and why the college entrance examination are like that.

It seems that the college entrance examination’s phenomenon is like a man made tragedy. Chinese government published the policy that one couple can only have one child, this policy slowed down the rate of the growing population. We can not control the population very well , but we can choose the ways of students selection and the teaching method.

To make better ways of students selection for university, we should do something on the teaching methods and teaching contents. First , because of each students has different ability and different interest, students should not be taught in one standard. If not, it is very cruel to the children who do not enjoy the education themselves. Second, the curricula should have a totally revolution. Even now, most of the curricula are directly for the purpose of the examinations, not for the science knowledge, the cultures , the real knowledge. Students should learn how to behave , how to communicate or how to protect themselves , then they should study the basic knowledge together, such as simple math problems, simple common life sense or simple cultures. after those basic lessons , students will have elective classes. As for which classes should a student choose, it is all depend on the student himself (or herself). This revolution will change the traditional “education for examinations” into “education for education” , so that the examination will not be like preciseness ,old-fashioned or useless knowledge. Third , teachers should not give students too many homework. The students will have time to learn something by themselves or enjoy their childhood/teenager years. Students will get much knowledge that they can never get at school. This is good both for students and the society.

The ways of students selection for university should also make some change. The enrollment should be flexible. Each student has strong point and weak point. The former enrollment want the student to be strong in each subject, this is not a smart idea. The students are not supposed to be a Wikipedia , so that the students need not be strong in each subject, but they should be stronger in their major than before. The holding time of the college entrance examination should be changed. The college entrance examination only held once a year now, that is to say, if the student failed in the exam, his only chance to enter a university is to prepare for another year for the next year’s exam. This is cruel and a waste of students’ time. So the college entrance examination should be held at least 2 or 3 times a year, then the students will have bigger chances to enter university.

Appendix 1:
|Year |Participant(approximately) |Enterd university (percentage) |
|1978 |6,100,000 | 6.5% |
|1979 |4,685,000 | 6.1% |
|1980 |3,330,000 | 8.4% |
|1981 |2,590,000 | 10.8% |
|1982 |1,870,000 | 17.1% |
|1983 |1,670,000 | 23.4% |
|1984 |1,640,000 | 29.3% |
|1985 |1,760,000 | 35.3% |

|1986 |1,910,000 | 29.8% |
|1987 |2,280,000 | 27.2% |
|1988 |2,720,000 | 24.6% |
|1989 |3,420,000 | 23.5% |
|1990 |3,530,000 | 22.0% |
|1991 |4,210,000 | 28.3% |
|1992 |3,960,000 | 32.7% |
|1993 |4,750,000 | 38.6% |

|1994 |4,680,000 | 39.2% |
|1995 |4,930,000 | 35.4% |
|1996 |5,330,000 | 40.7% |
|1997 |5,510,000 | 38.8% |
|1998 |5,690,000 |48.3% |
|1999 |6,650,000 | 49.1% |
|2000 |7,450,000 | 50.2% |
|2001 |7,800,000 | 51.3% |

|2002 |7,920,000 | 54.1% |
|2003 |8,100,000 | 62.3% |
|2004 |7,450,000 | 61.8% |
|2005 |8,350,000 | 58.1% |
|2006 |8,870,000 | 56.8% |
|2007 |9,950,000 | 55.7% |
|2008 |10,460,000 | 57.1% |
| | | |

Conclusion

Because of the wars and the education tradition ,the college entrance examinations were not an easy thing for any students ,yet the ways of students selection for university in China are still not so scientific these years. It is still difficult for a student to enter a university. The main causes for this situation are the population, the teaching method and teaching contents, the ways of students selection before university.

To change the situation, we should some changes about the three main reasons. The Chinese government has already published the policy to control the population, so we will focus the other two main causes in the future. The teaching method and teaching contents need some totally revolutions and the ways of students selection before university need some fix.

The Chinese government should also do something about the college entrance examinations , as well as they deal with the population problem. Although the problem is so hard to solve, the current situation will be better and better.

Quotations : 于'''扬(Boyang Yu).《中国高考》(Chinese college entrance examination), 人民教育出版社（Peoples’ republic publishing house）, 2005

“The statistics of participants in college entrance examination from 1978 to 2007” Xici Online Reference 4.April.2007. http://www.xici.net/b16462/d51173172.htm

“采访来自上海的高中老师”（A report from a high school teacher in Shanghai）college entrance examination info, 27.Mar.2008 www.gaokaoinfo.cn/20080327report2fsh.htm

“不科学的高中教育” (Unscientific teaching methods in high school) high school students and teachers 29.Dec.2007 http://www.gzs.cn/html/2007/12/29/89551-0.html

“这是真正的教育'' ”(Is this real education?) high school students and teachers 17.Mar.2009 http://www.gzs.cn/html/2009/3/17/133301-0.html