Education pt. 2 “Since 1980, China has made tremendous progress in education. In China, the government provides the opportunity of elementary education to almost every child in the country, and although for some reason, some people still cannot take advantage of the educational opportunities, the percentage of educated people has increased since 1980.

Mr. Gang Li City: Beijing Birth: June 19, 1974 Map of China (29KB JPG)

“In most cities nowadays, almost all families have only one child because of the ‘one-child-per-family’ policy. As a result, grandfathers and grandmothers from both sides as well as the parents, regard the education of the child as the most important thing to the whole family. Because of this, a lot of special schools for different purposes such as the teaching of piano, drawing, and so on, have appeared quickly in the past few years. Some children are participating in more than one activity, and one side effect is that they have no weekends at all.

“Apart from the usual types of schooling, since 1985, a lot of special programs designed for ‘gifted’ children have been created in several big cities across China. As far as I know, the first one was held at Beijing No. 8 Middle School in 1985. Thirty-five children were selected from more than 600 candidates. As one of these thirty-five lucky children, I can still remember clearly all the details of that period. Being there, we were supposed to finish seven years of study within four years and then go to a university. The teachers were the best ones from that school, and we were provided our own dining hall and dorms apart from the regular students at the middle school. Teacher Gong Baohua was in charge of our everyday life, and she loved us so much that she put all of her heart into her work and treated us as her own children.

“University education has also undergone a lot of changes recently. For example, Tsinghua University, which I attended, has changed a lot of its policies in order to keep up with the innovations which are taking place everywhere in present-day China. New departments and programs, such as economics and business administration, have opened in the last couple of years since these kinds of specialties are playing more and more important roles in the present Chinese society. Also, the fact that some departments, including physics and mathematics, have fewer new students each year, reflects the younger generations’ ideas of their future jobs. Another new phenomena is that everyone must pay for his/her own university studies, and the tuition fee varies from several hundred to several thousand per semester. Although this may be a big amount for the average family, parents still encourage their children to pursue university studies.

“In summary, education, being the key to China becoming a modern and developed country, is now undergoing very big innovations, and we are looking forward to seeing a wealthier China in the near future.