School system in the People's Republic of China
The school system in the People's Republic of China comprises pre-schools, elementary schools (小学, Pinyin : xiǎoxué ) and secondary schools (中学, zhōngxué ), which are attended for a total of at least nine and a maximum of twelve years, as well as universities. In addition to the public schools, an extensive network of private schools (私立学校, sīlì xuéxiào ) has emerged in the People's Republic of China .
history
China is commonly referred to as one of the oldest civilizations and high cultures of mankind . An educational system already existed during the Shang dynasty (approx. 1600-1046 BC). Upbringing was traditionally shaped by Confucian philosophy . From the 9th century on, state academies (Shuyuan) existed that offered education at university level. In addition, Taoist and Buddhist monasteries functioned as educational institutions. The primary educational goal was to generate an educated elite during the Chinese imperial era that could maintain the status quo on the basis of Confucian ideas. Social advancement through education was in principle open to everyone, but there was no compulsory schooling. Theoretically, every peasant could rise to the highest minister of the empire since the 11th century, which gave this system of meritocracy a certain democratic character. In Europe, which was firmly established by estates, it would take until the late 19th century for similar principles to prevail in the filling of public offices.
In the course of the submission and division of China into spheres of influence of major European powers , the education system came to an almost complete standstill from the middle of the 19th century. According to conservative estimates, 80 percent of the population was illiterate towards the end of the German Empire . One of the few exceptions was the German colonial area on the Shandong Peninsula ( Kiautschou ) with active educational policy ambitions. Long-term economic prosperity of the colony and acceptance among the Chinese population was sought by means of generous school offers, which should indirectly help stabilize foreign rule.
It was only after the reunification of China (1928) that the Kuomintang could begin with a nationwide school reform. From this point on, education was understood as part of the nation-building process and economic development. However, the goals could not be implemented due to the Chinese Civil War . After the victory of the communists and the founding of the People's Republic of China, compulsory schooling was introduced based on the model of the Soviet Union , initially only affecting primary schools . Soviet advisers later helped set up a university system. Teaching materials were translated and imported from the Soviet Union, and the range of subjects at both schools and universities was aligned with that of the Soviet educational system.
Although illiteracy proved to be an obstacle to the spread of the ideology of the Communist Party of China , despite great efforts it was initially not possible to establish a nationwide school system. Individual educational programs were created, including winter schools, in which more than 60 million farmers were enrolled from 1949 to 1951. Mao Zedong promoted education; however, his enthusiasm for following the Soviet model only lasted until the mid-1950s and ended with the Sino-Soviet rift .
During the “ big leap forward ”, agricultural secondary schools and so-called work and learning schools were set up everywhere , in which every pupil or student was encouraged not only to study but also to work, for example in the school's own gardens or factories. In 1965, around 85 percent of six to twelve year old Chinese attended elementary school. With this development, teacher training could not keep pace with the increased number of students. Increased access to education also meant a deterioration in educational standards. In addition, the population hardly accepted the newly introduced agricultural secondary schools. At the university level, the number of start-ups and the number of students increased. Neither turned out to be permanent.
The ten following years of the Cultural Revolution meant a massive step backwards for education. Between 1966 and 1969, practically all schools in the country were closed. The pupils and students who became unemployed as a result were to a large extent included in political programs. Universities only reopened between 1970 and 1972. Initially, they did not carry out normal entrance exams, but rather accepted applicants who had politically recommended themselves. This should prevent the formation of an elite. The previous four or five years of university education was shortened to three years, with the students having to spend part of this time with physical work. The application requirement for most university visitors was a two-year job in agriculture.
It was not until Mao's death in 1976 that the end of the Cultural Revolution made possible. As part of the reform and opening policy , several school reforms took place from 1978 onwards. The schooling was gradually extended to twelve years and the two-year work assignment for university applicants was omitted. By the mid-1980s at the latest, the Chinese state invested immense sums in its education system. In May 1985 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China published a "Resolution on Reforming the Education System", which forms the basis for the school system in the People's Republic of China to this day. In 1986 a law followed that stipulated a general nine-year school attendance . Further school reforms followed in 1996, 1999 and 2006.
Current school system
The administration of the Chinese education system is decentralized, with all provinces and autonomous regions having a strong say. The highest education authority, which exercises the framework competence for structures in the school and higher education system, is the Ministry of Education. On the basis of the provinces' constitutionally guaranteed autonomy rights, the powers of the ministry in Beijing were reduced as early as the 1990s. Similar to the economic administration, there was a strong deregulation in the education administration of the People's Republic of China : Competencies were passed on to lower levels, and these can basically implement education independently in terms of finance, personnel and content .
China's education system is standardized according to the International Standard Classification of Education . Participation in the worldwide education program “Education for All” (EFA), which is under the direction of UNESCO , is part of the internationalization and opening up of China. In 2001, the People's Republic of China achieved a literacy rate of 98 percent of the population. The law on compulsory schooling, reformed by the Ministry of Education in 2006, explicitly opposes the levying of school fees for the duration of compulsory schooling, and no province may charge extra fees for, for example, tutoring at schools. Chinese cities and regions have occupied several top positions in the top ten result tables of the PISA studies in recent years .
Kindergartens
Attending the kindergarten is voluntary. It can begin at the age of three to five and lasts until the age of six or seven. Kindergartens can be attended full-time, half-day or by the hour. The educational goal of kindergartens is to prepare the children educationally and socially for attending primary school. The focus is on an age-appropriate, emotional upbringing. Kindergarten teachers attend vocational secondary school for four years and then teach groups of around 35 children in groups of three.
Pre-school education is excluded from the statutory nine-year compulsory education. In principle, the main sponsor of the institutions is not the state, but cities, municipalities, churches, companies and private providers. In all institutions, the educational staff must have appropriate qualifications. The financing varies in the provinces and municipalities and depends on the institution. Good kindergartens charge high fees in the cities. In general, the costs depend strongly on the place of residence, the provider, the age of the child, the care options and the care times and are influenced by social aspects such as income or the number of children in the family. In some cases, employers or the state grant grants. In the countryside, the provincial administrations largely cover one hundred percent of the fees. Company kindergartens are also mostly free.
primary school
Primary school generally lasts six years, sometimes five years in rural areas. The school age is six or seven years. Primary schools are usually all-day schools . The number of school hours is 26 to 30 per week, a teaching unit lasts 50 minutes. The school year is divided into two semesters. Subjects include: Chinese, math, physical education, science, music, and arts; English lessons are given from the 3rd grade onwards. There is an action-oriented teaching instead and autonomous learning. In the learning process, the development potential of the student should be taken into account and a development from purely teacher-centered lessons to student-centered ones should be sought. Students should develop both knowledge and skills, such as independence (dulixing) and autonomy (zhudongxing), in order to participate as actively as possible in the learning process. Confucian teaching content is part of the school's educational concept. School uniforms are compulsory in many Chinese schools .
Secondary school
The secondary education at the secondary schools is divided into three annual sub-stage and three years to college. These can be general and vocational or technical middle schools. The subjects taught include: Chinese, math, a compulsory foreign language (mostly English), physics, chemistry, biology, technology, IT , sports, art, music, ethics , economics, history and geography. One lesson is 45 minutes; 35 teaching units per week.
For the transition from the lower level of the middle school to the upper level, there are uniformly regulated final and entrance exams for each province. Classes in the upper level of the middle school are 35 hours per week, with at least two additional hours per week in self-study . From the 11th grade onwards, the general secondary school students have the opportunity to choose between a scientific or a humanities direction. The differences in the curriculum are that in the humanities main subjects, politics, ethics and history are taught up to eight units, whereas physics and chemistry predominate in the natural sciences .
The Gao Kao refers to the final examination in the Chinese secondary system, which enables entry into the course. This exam is the final exam of the twelve-year school education and is therefore comparable to the Abitur in Germany. Examination subjects are: Chinese, mathematics, a foreign language, physics, chemistry, politics, history, geography and biology. The grading scale follows a point system from 1 to 100; A pass is obtained with a score of 60 or more. The examination subjects for the university entrance examination are the core subjects Chinese, mathematics and English. To this end, students in the natural sciences choose two subjects from the subjects of physics, biology or chemistry, those in the humanities choose two subjects from politics, history or geography.
In addition to the general secondary schools that prepare for university, there are vocational and technical secondary schools. These specialized high schools are run at the local county or provincial level. This includes Buddhist schools as well as forestry and agricultural institutions. Students must have completed nine years of compulsory schooling and pass an entrance exam. The duration of the subsequent training is two to four years. The technical secondary schools are mostly run directly by large companies. For example, they train specialists for the steel industry, textile industry, oil industry or the botanical industry. In addition, these schools provide training opportunities for employees or middle-level workers in law , finance, healthcare, the arts, and sports. The duration of the training is three years. In contrast to other educational institutions, the curriculum of the technical schools is not determined by state or local authorities, but is based on the needs of the respective company. The selection of future students takes place by means of aptitude tests in the desired subject area. For the secondary level, the aim is to balance the number of students between general and vocational secondary schools.
Colleges
In 1995, the Chinese Ministry of Education approved Project 211 , in which around one hundred universities were given special support in order to achieve the level of top Western universities in the 21st century. The following are now among the top universities in the state recognized worldwide :
- Peking University
- Tsinghua University
- Chinese People's University
- Fudan University
- Shanghai Jiaotong University
- Zhejiang University
- Chinese University of Science and Technology
- Nanjing University
- Xi'an Jiaotong University
- Sun Yat-sen University (Guangdong)
According to official statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Education, there were 2,560 state-recognized colleges (universities and colleges), 292 institutions for adult higher education, and 813 other tertiary educational institutions in China . Only 75 universities are directly subordinate to the Ministry of Education. Attending universities is not tied to party membership. Nevertheless, the barriers to entry remain high. Especially at elite universities, only the best high school graduates from each province are admitted. In addition, all students must take compulsory courses in Marxism , Maoism , Chinese and international politics as well as contemporary economic politics and ethics; this also applies to math students, for example. Participation can be selected from some compulsory subjects.
Even before the entrance exam, the students have to determine which subject they want to study where. The allocation of study places is based on a point system together with a numerus clausus . In principle, university studies are subject to fees, although there are several options for scholarships, loans or - especially for the rural population - for exemption from tuition fees.
Since the educational reform measures of the 1990s, universities have had to raise funds, for example through tuition fees or public third-party funds. Nevertheless, state funding (ministries, provincial governments) remains the main source of income for public institutions. The second largest share is tuition fees. For example, a bachelor's degree in 2016 cost between 3,000 and 6,000 Renminbi (approx. 425 to 850 euros) per academic year , depending on the region and the prestige of the university . Donations from private sources to universities are not uncommon in China: According to the Mercator Institute for China Studies , China's hundred largest philanthropists donated a total of 1.7 billion euros in 2016.
There are also numerous partnerships between universities and business. This gives students the opportunity to do an internship at a cooperating company and get a job there later. The universities can acquire additional funds and industry-related teaching staff and find potential exploitation partners for their research results in the companies. The five most popular disciplines are in order: engineering, business, science, arts, and medicine. In 2015, according to the Chinese Ministry of Education, a total of more than 42 million students were enrolled at Chinese universities, including around 13,207,000 engineers - and 11,380,503 BA - and MBA graduates . The number of patents submitted in 2015 in science and technology was 801,135.
Private schools
In terms of education policy, the government of the People's Republic of China is promoting the development of the private education sector. Private education was allowed again in the 1982 constitution. Private schools exist at all levels of the educational system. In terms of numbers, the private sector has increased in recent years, but plays a subordinate role compared to the state. To encourage private school attendance, all government benefits such as scholarships, student loans, and other grants are available to private school students as well as public school students. At the end of 2016 there were 171,000 private schools in China, around 8,000 more than in the previous year. 48.25 million students attended these schools, an increase from 2.54 million.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Caroline Glöckner: The education system in China. In: Christel Adick (Ed.): Educational developments and school systems in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Waxmann 2013, pp. 191-212.
- ^ Klaus Mühlhahn: Rule and Resistance in the Model Colony Kiautschou. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2000, pp. 240-242.
- ^ Caroline Glöckner: The education system in China. In: Christel Adick (Ed.): Educational developments and school systems in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Waxmann 2013, pp. 191-212.
- ↑ Insup Taylor, Martin M. Taylor: Writing and literacy in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. John Benjamin Publishing, 1995, p. 43 f.
- ^ Caroline Glöckner: The education system in China. In: Christel Adick (Ed.): Educational developments and school systems in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Waxmann 2013, pp. 191-212.
- ^ Emily Hannum, Albert Par: Education and Reform in China. Routledge, 2007 p. 282 f.
- ^ Educational landscape : China
- ^ Caroline Glöckner: The education system in China. In: Christel Adick (Ed.): Educational developments and school systems in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Waxmann 2013, pp. 191-212.
- ↑ China: Population and Education, Zhongshan University , accessed December 19, 2017
- ^ Caroline Glöckner: The education system in China. In: Christel Adick (Ed.): Educational developments and school systems in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Waxmann 2013, pp. 191-212.
- ↑ PISA study 2015, OECD 2016 , accessed on December 19, 2017
- ^ Caroline Glöckner: The education system in China. In: Christel Adick (Ed.): Educational developments and school systems in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Waxmann 2013, pp. 191-212.
- ↑ Christina Acuna: Education and professional training in the People's Republic of China. Structures, problems and perspectives. Diplomica Verlag, 2011, p. 23.
- ↑ Björn Thiele: The Chinese Way to University. GRIN Verlag, 2010, p. 5 f.
- ^ These Chinese School Uniforms Have Korean Students Super Jealous. Retrieved February 13, 2018 .
- ↑ China: School system in China. In: Chinaseite.de. October 21, 2016, accessed on January 17, 2020 (German).
- ↑ "China's Ivy League: C9 League" , China Daily, 2009
- ↑ "China must have a number of top-class universities at the international level" ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , former President Jiang Zemin (1998), at the 100th centenary celebrations of Peking University
- ↑ China: Data & analyzes on the university and science location 2017; German Academic Exchange Service, pp. 15–16. , accessed December 19, 2017
- ↑ Martin Doerry , Andreas Lorenz: We only take the best. Der Spiegel, April 7, 2017, accessed November 22, 2017.
- ^ Caroline Glöckner: The education system in China. In: Christel Adick (Ed.): Educational developments and school systems in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Waxmann 2013, pp. 191-212.
- ↑ China: Data & analyzes on the university and science location 2017 ; German Academic Exchange Service, p. 21 f. , accessed December 19, 2017
- ↑ China: Data & analyzes on the university and science location 2017 ; German Academic Exchange Service, p. 33 f. , accessed December 19, 2017
- ↑ China wants to promote private schools more. German China Internet Information Center (CIIC), January 20, 2017 , accessed December 20, 2017
