The History of Chinese Education

      Upon reading my correspondent's letters and researching the topic, I learned that Chinese Education is much different from American Education. This topic interested me, so I decided to look deeper into the Chinese Education. I wanted to know more about what a typical day would be like for a Chinese student. I also wondered how hard their classes were, or what the requirements were to get into a University. I had so many questions and needed to know more.

     Education has been around for a long time in China. In fact, many scholars believe the history of Education in China can be traced as far back as the 16th century B.C. during the late "Xia Dynasty."  Back then education was only a privilege to the Elites. In the last 50 years the Chinese Education has skyrocketed. In 1986 the Chinese government passed a compulsory law that made nine years of education mandatory for all Chinese children. Now today 99.7 percent of the population area of the country has achieved the nine year Education Law.
     Since 1978 China has increased the college-age population to over twenty percent, whereas it was only 1.4 percent in 1978. June of 2014 there were 9.39 million students that took the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, otherwise known as the Gao Kao.  http://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/cedu.php

This is a picture of many Chinese Students taking the Gao Kao,
or the Higher Education Entrance Examination.

     I wanted to know what an average day would be like for a Chinese student. So I asked my correspondent Molly some questions about how school is like for her. First of all, she told me that her high school was the hardest part of her entire educational career. That sounded crazy to me so I asked her more about it. Molly said, "We had classes from morning to night, about twelve classes everyday." I wondered if her high school was so hard, then how is her University? I asked her about it and she told me that she has a whole lot more free time at her University. She even gave me a walk through of a regular day. During the weekdays Molly wakes up at 6:10 am then she goes to have breakfast, after breakfast she recites books, then goes to her class, then finally goes to lunch. After lunch she has a little time to take a nap or do some extra homework, then after the nap comes more classes. That is pretty much her everyday schedule. Although when she doesn't have classes she said she hangout with friends, or does some type of physical activity, or does more school work. The University life sounds much nicer than that of a high school student.

     After learning about the history of Chinese education and how Chinese student live their everyday life. I have learned that Chinese education is taken very seriously and is very important in Chinese culture. I think it is very weird that their high school is busier and in some cases even harder than their University. I know for sure that I would not want to go to school from morning to night. That would be awful. I wonder what Chinese students would think of American Education system if they went to school here?

Sources

"Overview of Education in China - China Education Center." Overview of Education in China - China Education Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. (Secondary source)

 

Molly."梦涵 ". Cole Oliver. November 20, 2014. E-mail (Primary source)