Gao Kao and No Spring Break in Aruba, Either

ONLY TEN MORE HOURS TODAY, LIU!

We in education hear it all the time: how the foreign countries are kicking our collective behinds when it comes to putting quality education out there, measured, I suspect, in the number of engineers each country turns out. For awhile, it was Japan, but now it seems to be that the last Red Menace (China) has taken over as the paragon of educational production. Enrollement in universities has increased sixfold in the last decade so you know it's not just more Yao Mings they're tuning out like Model Ts. An additional five million students wish to enter the university system every year, according to a report in today's New York Times.
"So what?" I hear you query. Well, for starters, being admitted to a university in China is a big deal. Roughly 60% of applicants get accepted. Here, it seems that if you can pay the tuition, they'll find some kind of waiver for even the worst of students (particularly if you have a skill which might earn the university money). Not so in China. Liu Quicha is a perfect example. This young man is purported to have studied 14-16 hours a day for a YEAR just to take the test, called gao kao (high test). Knowing he needed breaks, he took one day off from his studies every three weeks! Picture an American kid even taking one day off every three weeks from his or her cell phone! Study? uh, not so much. And you don't want to mess with the proctors of that test, either. A young woman arrived four minutes late in 2007 and was refused admittance to take the test! This in spite of the fact that both she AND her mother got on their knees and begged the proctor to admit the young lady. Groveling to a teacher in this country? Picture THAT in the USA. More like going to the superintendent and demanding someone get fired! The girl in question had to wait a year for the next test since it is given only on an annual basis. Long hours of study come at some expense, especially in Sichuan Province where students actually go to the hospital to study...taking advantage of extra oxygen to help with concentration.
As one might imagine, the parents are worse than ANY Little League moms and dads here in America. They bribe their kids with fabulous prizes if they get admitted into a first-tier university (think Harvard)--meaning their future wealth will be assured, I guess. Even getting into a second-tier university (think Emporia State University...home of the Hornets)--is a boon to parents and students alike. As a result, sophisticated ways of cheating have been devised. One father equipped his child with an earphone, wheedled professors into giving him the test questions, and provided answers to his child; another father managed to get a mini scanner in with his kid and had NINE (count 'em 9) teachers standing by to help with the answers! All in all, there were 2,645 students (and, presumably parents) caught cheating last year. And Liu?
He didn't pass the test and shamed his parents. His mother would not talk to him except to say, "All these years of raising you and washing your clothes and cooking for you, and YOU earn such a low score." During the following year, Liu attended a "prep" school at a cost of 38,500 renminibi per year (roughly $5640.00) WELL beyond what his aprents could afford. His reward? A test score which allowed him entrance to a first-tier university and a mother who will again be proud to call him her progeny.
Want to bet HIS Saturdays will be spent at Starbucks or at the local bar quaffing a few and talking smack with his buddies?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing our system: one that teaches independent thinking and creativity at the expense, sometimes, of rote memorization (long been a criticism of the educational methods around the world). But who's buying bonds from whom these days?