Sunday, February 8, 2009
Gutek Chapter 16
The inconsistencies within the Chinese educational system are immense. The variety within Chinese education somewhat reminds me of the US healthcare system: there are variables based on where you live, a mixed historical precedent, and constant change due to economics and politics. The US healthcare system is also referred to a “nonsystem” because it lacks a degree of uniformly consistent elements; Chinese education appears to share that theme. Gutek describes the varied history of Chinese education, including the shifting principles behind educational thought; the ideological values of Communism and classless culture, but also the embedded discriminations based on socioeconomics, particularly location. It is difficult for me to believe that there are so many possibilities for primary education (five-year, part-time, and full-time six-year) and that the educational options afterwards are limited to so few students, a number that decreases along each step of the way, with so few opportunities for the students reach an upper, but not the uppermost, level. The goals of the Ministry of Education do not seem to be concerned about this problem, which is also an element of the larger problem of mass unemployment, as we discussed in class as an element of the Chinese news.
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I completely agree with you. I feel like China is setting up certain children for failure because of the way their educational system is functioning.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the system is not uniform, but at the same time, the many options for primary education seem to come from the goal of giving working adults and children a chance at some form of education even if they were not university bound. When China became a communist nation, one of their goals was to bring literacy to those who were illiterate, many of which could not attend the traditional schooling systems.I believe that it was during those times that these different options were created. In the chapter, the author also brought up how after rapidly opening many schools in the mid to late 1900's, the government had to hire lower quality teachers to fill the positions, which meant lower quality education. Perhaps they are now focusing more on quality versus quantity when it comes to scholarship.
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