Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T16:12:54.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

China's Senior Middle Schools in a Social Perspective: A Survey of Yantai District, Shandong Province*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Stig Thøgersen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

No part of China's educational system has undergone more radical changes since 1977 than senior secondary education.1 Three trends have dominated reforms at this level: reduced intake, streaming based on aptitude and the re-introduction of a vocational secondary school system that has already enrolled a considerable proportion of senior middle school students.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 109 , March 1987 , pp. 72 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Senior secondary education comprises general and vocational schools recruiting students who have completed five to six years of primary school and three years of I junior secondary school. Students are normally around 16 years old when they enter senior secondary school.

2. 1977 figures from Zhongguo jingji nianjian 1982 (Chinese Economic Yearbook), Sect. V (1982), pp. 389–90. 1983 figures from Statistical Yearbook of China 1984, p.: 488. The figures do not include students in secondary specialized schools (zhongzhuan) or workers' training schools (jixiao).

3. Decision by the CCPCC on Reform of the Educational System, 27 May 1985, British Broadcasting Corporation, Summary of World Broadcasts (SWB), Part III; Far East (FE): 7966/BI1/, p. 5.

4. In Shanghai, for instance, 50 per cent of the students enrolled in senior middle schools in 1984 were placed in vocational schools. See Su Songxing and Zhang Yueqi, I “Zhongdeng jiaoyu jiegou gaige de yi xiang zhongyao neirong” (“An important content of the structural reform of secondary education”), Shehui kexue (Social Sciences), No. 1 (1985), p. 55. Other advanced areas in vocationalization are Beijing, Dongbei (Manchuria), Shandong and Jiangsu.

5. The topic of key middle schools is discussed in Stanley, Rosen, “New directions in secondary education,” in Ruth Hayhoe (ed.), Contemporary Chinese Education (London: 1984), particularly pp. 83–86,Google Scholar and in Suzanne, Pepper, China's Universities (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1984), pp. 20–30.Google Scholar

6. See Marianne, Bastid, “Chinese educational policies in the 1980s and the economic development,” The China Quarterly, No. 98 (06 1984), pp. 189–219.Google Scholar

7. The idea of vocational junior middle schools has been introduced in the CCPCC decision of 27 May 1985 (cf. note 3), and may well spread in the country side. The overwhelming majority of junior middle schools are, however, still general schools.

8. Cultural Revolution university enrolment procedures are described in detail in Jonathan, Unger, Education under Mao (New York: 1982), pp. 191–96.Google Scholar

9. The university entrance examinations and their impact on middle school education are discussed in Pepper, China's Universities.

10. This is mentioned in Lu, Yun, “Training cadres on a large scale,” Beijing Review, No. 14 (1984), p. 24.Google Scholar In February 1985 it was reported that 37 per cent of the cadres were still below senior secondary school level, and that the original aim is now expected to be reached in the year 2000. SWB/FE/7869/BII/l Iff.

11. SWB/FE/7905/BII/l.

12. Cao, Zhi, “Cong zhanliie gaodu kandai youxiu zhishifenzi ru dang wenti,” (“Approach the question of recruiting outstanding intellectuals into the Party from the high plane of strategy”) Hongqi (Red Flag), No. 23 (1984), p. 16 f.Google Scholar

13. Several authors have covered this subject. For comprehensive treatments of reforms at all levels of education see Bastid, “Chinese educational policies,” and Hayhoe, Contemporary Chinese Education.”

14. Jiaoyu yanjiu (Educational Research), No. 11 (1983).

15. Zou, Tianxing et al. , “Yantai diqu jingji yu jiaoyu qingkuang diaocha baogao,” (“Investigation report on the economic and educational situation in Yantai District”), Jiaoyu yanjiu, No. 11 (1983), pp. 20–24.Google Scholar

16. Ibid.

17. Zhongguo jingji nianjian, Sect. III (1983), p. 42.

18. China Reconstructs, No. 2 (1984), for instance, carries three articles on Yantai and focuses on the success of the area.

19. SWB/FE/7968/BII/3.

20. Statistical Yearbook of China 1985, p. 586, and Zhongguo tongji nianjian 1983 (Statistical Yearbook of China, 1983), p. 517.

21. National figure for 1983. Calculations of age cohort are based on the age distribution table (Table 19) in Zhongguo 1982 nian renkou pucha 10% chouyang ziliao, dianzi jisuanji huizong (Ten Per Cent Sample Survey of the Chinese 1982 Census: A Computerized Selection) (Beijing: 1983). All 14- and 15-year-olds, plus 20% of the 16- year-olds (because a certain proportion of schools are already running a three-year curriculum) in 1982 are included. Total number of students from Statistical Yearbook of China, 1984, p. 488. The Yantai figure has been calculated in the same way, but the total number of students was supplied by Yantai Educational Bureau.

22. A detailed description of vocational schools can be found in Münch/Risler, Stand und Entwicklungsperspektiven des beruflichen Bildungswesens in der Volksrepublik China (Berlin: 1984), and in Jürgen, Henze, “Developments in vocational education since 1976,” in Comparative Education, Vol. 20, No. 1 (1984), pp. 117–40.Google Scholar See also, Münch/Risler, Berufliche Bildung in der Volksrepublik China. Strukturen, Probleme und Emphelungen (Luxemburg: CEDEFOP, 1986).

23. The best key schools of each province are listed in Zhongguo jiaoyu nianjian 1949-1981 (Beijing: 1984) pp. 1096–1103.

24. Statistical Yearbook of China, 1985, p. 585.

25. The figures for Yantai were given to me at interviews with the headmasters of the six schools. That key schools have more League members than other schools is a national phenomenon. See Stanley, Rosen, “Education and the political socialization of Chinese youth,” in John N. Hawkins (ed.), Education and Social Change in the People's Republic of China (New York: 1983), p. 117 ff.Google Scholar

26. This was the case at Beijing Normal University's Second Attached Middle School (Beijing Shifan Daxue Di Er Fushu Zhongxue), which I visited for a week in March 1984.

27. 27. “Rongcheng Xian Jiaoyuji: Zhengque chuli zhongdian zhongxue yu yiban zhongxue de guanxi” (“Rongcheng County Educational Bureau: treat correctly the relation between key and ordinary middle schools”), “Shandong jiaoyu (Shandong Education), No. 11 (1983), pp. 6–7. In other localities non-key schools send relatively fewer students to university. See Rosen, “New directions,” pp. 84–85.

28. The classification of parents' occupations is based on answers to three questions. Students were asked (1) to place their parents in one of six categories: workers, peasants, employees, cadres, professionals and soldiers; (2) to place them according to the economic sector in which they worked (industry, agriculture, etc.); and (3) to describe their parents' actual work function. In the final classification the answers to all three questions were used to place the parents in one of the following groups: cadres – people with leadership or administrative functions in state and party organs or enterprises, including military personnel; intellectuals – people engaged in mental work who have received at least specialized secondary education and school teachers without regard to education; non-manual workers – people in the commerce and service sectors without leadership functions, including accountants, shop assistants, office staff, nurses, postmen and laboratory workers; manual workers – workers in industry, construction and transport and urban artisans; peasants – peasants, fishermen, village craftsmen and a few basic-level agricultural technicians.

29. See for instance the survey of Canton schools in the 1960s carried out by Jonathan Unger, Stanley Rosen and Anita Chan in Jonathan linger, Education under Mao, pp. 26–29.

30. An article drawing on a large number of Soviet surveys on this question is Dobson, Richard B., “Social status and inequality in access to higher education in the U.S.S.R.,” in J. Karabel and A.H. Halsey (eds.), Power and Ideology in Education (New York: 1977), pp. 254–75.Google Scholar

31. Beijing Review, No. 18 (1985), pp. 9–10.

32. At the normal and agricultural schools, I was told by the headmasters that 98 per cent and 100 per cent of the students respectively were of peasant origin. What was probably means was that all students had a countryside registration (nongye hukou) inherited from their mothers. If the few statistics on social recruitment to higher education released to foreign scholars (see in particular Pepper, China's Universities, pp. 134–41) have been calculated by the same method, they substantially overestimate the number of genuine peasant students. In my own survey only students who put their father's job in the category of “peasant” and answered that the father was actually doing agricultural labour have been included in the “peasant” category. In this way I hope to have screened out some (but not necessarily all) village cadres and workers in rural industry.

33. A comprehensive discussion of and examples from the large amount of research on this question in Western countries can be found in Karabel and Halsey, Power and Ideology.

34. These adverse effects are discussed in detail in Susan Shirk, Competitive Comrades (Berkeley: 1982).

35. A very interesting Chinese survey finds that while the university entrance exam almost totally lacks forecast value for student university achievement, there is a strong correlation between the score in this exam and marks in middle school. See “Beijing Shifan Daxue xinlixi gaokao yanjiuzu: gaige gaokao, gengjia zhunque youxiaode xuanba rencai” (“The university entrance examination research group at Beijing Normal University, Department of Psychology: reform the university entrance examination, select talented people more correctly and efficiently”), Jiaoyu yanjiu, No. 6 (1985), p. 54 ff.

36. Dale, Wolfle, America's Resources of Specialised Talent (New York: 1954), p. 163.Google Scholar Quoted here from Karabel and Halsey, Power and Ideology, p. 198

37. In the discussions following the 1978 university entrance examinations a Ministry of Education spokesman admitted: “There are a greater number of college students from intellectual families than from workers' and peasants' families because the former have better conditions and environment for learning.” He did not see this as a problem, however; Beijing Review, No. 30 (1978), p. 18.

38. Pepper, Chinese Universities, particularly pp. 107–116 and 134–41.

39. Statistical Yearbook of China, 1985, p. 588.

40. See in particular Zeng, Jinghua, “Zhongxue nan nii sheng de chayi yu jiaoyu” (“The difference between male and female middle school students and their education”), Jiaoyu yanjiu, No. 12 (1981).Google Scholar

41. Shisan Nü Zhong (No. 13 Girls' Middle School), “Yanjiu niizhong jiaoyu de tedian” (“Research on the characteristics of education in a girls' middle school”), Shanghai shi zhongxue jiaoyu gongzuo jingyan xuanbian (Selected Experiences from Education Work in Shanghai Middle Schools) (Shanghai: 1983), pp. 22–34.

42. Zhongguo 1982 nian renkou pucha 10% chouyang ziliao, dianzi jisuanji huizong (Beijing: 1983), Table 34.

43. The replacement system implies that workers who retire have the right to let one of their children inherit their job. The system has been under heavy official criticism, but it still survives in many places.

44. See Qingshaonian Lixiang, Dongji, Xingqu Yanjiu Xiezuozu (The Research Cooperation Team on the Ideals, Motives and Interests of Teenagers), “Quanguo shi sheng shi zai xiao qingshaonian lixiang, dongji, he xingqu de yanjiu” (“Research on the ideals, motives and interests of teenage schoolchildren in 10 provinces and cities”), Zhu Zhixian (ed), Qingshaonian xinli de fazhan (The Psychological Development of Teenagers) (Beijing: 1982), pp. 179–96.

45. See A. Kelly, The Missing Half (Manchester. 1981), andGASAT2, Contributions to the Second International Conference on Girls and Science and Technology (Oslo: 1983).

46. Only 13 per cent of the students admitted to institutions of higher learning in 1982 were enrolled in liberal arts or social sciences. Zhongguo tongji nianjian (1983), p. 516.

47. Zeng Jinghua, “Zhongxue nan nü sheng.”

48. Chen, Lihua, “Nüsheng zhili fazhan de tedian” (“The characteristics of female students' intellectual development”), Guangming ribao (Guangming Daily), 28 February 1986, p. 3.Google Scholar

49. That some universities and even middle schools demand higher passing rates from girls is mentioned in Jiaoyu yanjiu, No. 6 (1983), pp. 55–56.

50. Among American college drop-outs (a group resembling the Chinese students who fail to pass the university entrance examinations) social class is an important determinant of who will transfer or return to college later in their career. Eckland, Bruce K. “Social class and college graduation: some misconceptions corrected,” American Journal of Sociology, No. 70 (07 1964), pp. 36–50,CrossRefGoogle Scholar quoted in Karabel and Halsey, Power and Ideology, p. 197.

51. This school was Beijing School of Electricity (Beijing Dianli Xuexiao).

52. This school was Shandong Province School. of Fishery and Aquaculture (Shandong Sheng Shuichan Xuexiao). A sample survey of 71 students at this school showed that they were “genuine” peasant students, not just registered in a village.

53. This school was Beijing Normal University's Second Attached Middle School.