China Education System Needs

China Education System Needs to be Changed on College Entrance Exam Introduction Getting up at 6 a. m. in the morning, after breakfast, then go to school to begin reading books or reciting textbooks. This was how I began my school life when I was in high school. I start my school life and study at 7 a. m. in the morning and until 9 p. m in the evening. When all my classes were over I could back home, but it did not mean that I can relax and go to bed. When I back home take a shower and continue studying until midnight. When I start our second year in high school, I need to choose a major: arts or science.

I choose arts in high school, so except Chinese, math and English, which everyone need to learn, I also needed to take politics, history and geography class. For sstudents who chose science, they need to take physics, biology and chemistry class instead. All Chinese sstudents have to study so hard for a reason: the college entrance exam, also called “gaokao” in Chinese. There are over ten million sstudents taking this exam every year in China. Only a small group of sstudents can pass this exam to get into the top university and get further education.

When we take the college entrance exam, and sstudents in different majors need to take different exams. There are two different tests, one for arts and one for sciences. And sstudents who major in arts need to remember lots of information; sstudents who major in science need to lots of homework. Many sstudents who cannot pass it may continue studying and take gaokao the next year or just go to a university that is not so good. As our parent's say, this is an exam that decides our whole life. So, it is easy to know how much pressure we have when we face this exam.

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I want to argue in this essay that I think China should provide the college entrance exam twice a year and, furthermore, should avoid using the exam alone to determine which sstudents can attend the best colleges. Making these changes can reduce the pressure on sstudents so that they can enjoy themselves and pursue other academic and non-academic interests. Some Background about "Gaokao" The gaokao that we take today was began at 1978. At first it was held in July every year, from 2003 it begins hold in June every year because July is too hot.

In China, the Compulsory Education Law that every single child must receive education at least for nine years. They need to start learning in kindergarten between age three to six. After three years in kindergarten, they need continue through primary school, middle school and then, for some people who have privilege to get higher education. There are two different levels of Chinese universities. The first category awards undergraduate diplomas and bachelor degrees following four years of study, whereas the second group awards undergraduate diplomas after two or three years. To enter these universities sstudents must sit the gaokao.

According to an author Davey, "The exam in China is ultimately under the control of the National Examination Authority within the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education co-ordinates and oversees the writing of exam questions, whereas lower-level government is responsible for printing and delivering the exam papers, as well as arranging exam centers, marking and reporting results "(Davey, 387). After several decades gaokao has become the most important exam for all China sstudents. Every year in June 7 and 8, two days that gaokao hold, it is just like a festival for examination.

Sstudents take exam in local schools but not the school where they take class every day. When we enter the examination hall we cannot bring anything but a pen and student card. There is no calculator and dictionary when we take exam. On the first day of exam, we take Chinese test in the morning for two and half hours. In the afternoon we take the mathematics for two hours. It is a hard time when we finish our first day of exam. I remember when I finished the first day of exam, I felt a little bit relax because I pass math exam that was the most difficult part for me.

I just glanced over my politics and history books prepared for next day. On the second day of gaokao, sstudents who major in arts take the test including politics, history and geography in the morning. Sstudents who major in sciences need take the test including physical, chemistry and biology. Last test is English in the afternoon of second of exam. In these two days police will come out to direct traffic and make sstudents can arrive to examination hall on time. Paren'ts are all worried about their children and many of them just stand outside of the examination hall wait till exam is over.

It is a very common phenomenon through this time period. For us, when we start our school life, be successful in the gaokao is our ultimate goal for every student. It is just like a battle that have no gun and smoke. It is very obvious to know why we have no time to enjoy our spare time to play games, or just hang out for a day. The exam is very stressful, when we start to prepare for it is stressful as well. Less time to sleep, when we get into last year in high school, we even have no PE class just major classes all day long.

Zheng, a writer from Research Center of High Education Development introduces that, "As the most important educational examination system of present-day China, the college entrance exam, while shouldering its original task of selecting qualified new sstudents for colleges and universities, also “holds multiple jobs,” pperforming educational, cultural, political, and other multifaceted social functions" (Zheng, 15). Gaokao even cares about our future career. A student graduate from the top university have a better chance to get good job than a student just graduate from normal university.

The argument Zoninsein, a reporter from Slate Magazine argues "Essentially, Chinese universities accept those sstudents who are good at taking tests. This makes sense for an educational system historically oriented toward rote learning, where sstudents are tested on how well they've memorized their teachers' lectures. Mary, who is about to graduate from the Beijing Foreign Languages University, admitted she had many brilliant friends who simply didn't test well. They retook the test after another year of studying and enrolled wherever their scores permitted" (Zoninsein).

As we all know, China has the largest number of people in the whole world. It is easy to image that how much pressure that Chinese sstudents face when they need to find a job. There is a social phenomenon have been in China for so long that if a student graduates from top university it mearns that he or she can find a good job. Benjamin a reporter from TIME net report this in 2007: "This year, close to 10 million Chinese sstudents sat for the gaokao, starting June 8. Sstudents who perform superlatively can expect to be courted by the nation's top schools; the rest find spots in provincial universities or two- and three-year colleges.

For the 40 ppercent of test-takers who fail, there's always next year — or enrollment at one of China's less-selective private institutions. As China's economy booms, job competition has become ferocious — and the pressure to land a prestigious degree can be unbearable"(Benjamin). Indeed, there are also many unfair phenomena in the college entrance exam. For example, sstudents who take the exam in different place may get different grades during the exam. Sstudents who live in big city like Beijing and Shanghai can pass this exam easier than the sstudents who live in region area.

Because there are many good universities in Beijing and Shanghai, when they enroll new sstudents they need sstudents' grades for gaokao, the university treat local sstudents and nonlocal sstudents in different way, they treat local sstudents better than nonlocal sstudents. For instance, two sstudents get the same grades in gaokao, one of them is local student in Beijing, and the other one is not a local student. In this situation, the local student can get enrolled in Beijing University but the nonlocal student may not. The exam seems to create inequality among Chinese sstudents in different regions.

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