About Education in China

Each person’s intellectual development and career advancement are greatly influenced by their level of education. The majority of parents place a high value on education for their children, thus they end up making financial investments in their education. In light of this, the school has recently been referred to be an important factor in success. Since they have a greater chance of succeeding in life, educated people are seen as well-off people in the community. Currently, education is expensive, particularly for those with modest incomes. However, nations like China have made significant investments in education thanks to parental and government backing. The education system in China involves the compulsory and post-compulsory sections (Anning 2014). The mandatory session takes nine years whereby six years are spent in primary and three years in junior high school. This session is free since the China government subsidizes all the payments with the aim of reducing illiteracy level and improving education penetration to all citizens. The post-compulsory session is not free, and parents have to contribute towards the school’s fees. After spending three years in senior high school, students are prepared for an entrance exam for the tertiary level of education where they join colleges and universities depending on their performance. The major challenge is to achieve the minimum score for tertiary level education. China values education since the well-paid jobs are associated with learned individuals. To make the higher level entry score, parents invest economically on their kids through paid tutoring. According to a survey carried out, there is a positive correlation between students who attend tutoring classes and performance (Anning 2014). Most of the high incomes earners or rather the rich are capable of paying for tutor class hence their kids have a better performance. Parents from the needy families cannot afford to pay a tutor thus low performance. By so doing, children from the wealthy families and high-income earners have a higher chance of making it in life hence creating a social disparity. Similarly, marriages in China are based on education levels where partners look for people with similar academic level thus isolating individuals from the poor backgrounds especially the males. Therefore, this essay will discuss the importance of education in China to creating social differences within the country. Additionally, the paper will account for the enormous emphasis on education in China since the elites need to be seen to be well-educated rather than merely powerful and wealthy.

For instance, education is vital since educated people have higher income hence they can afford for private tutoring. Family background and individual training in academics have widened the gap between the haves and have-nots in China (Zhang and Xie 2015). Academic competition in China is very high due to limited higher education institutions and a minimum threshold score for the tertiary institutions. The china education levels involve three stages which include the compulsory, post-compulsory and tertiary level. The Chinese government sponsors the obligatory level which takes place for nine years with six years in primary school and three years in junior high school (Zhang, et al. 2015). The next level is the post-compulsory which takes three years in senior high school, and after that, a student can attend college or university. On the same note, it is at this level where students are prepared for their entry examinations to the higher level institutions. Therefore, parents are forced by all means to ensure that their children pass well to gain entry to the next level which is highly competitive. Consequently, the parents hire private tutors to assist their children especially in mathematics and English language. According to Zhang and Xie (2015), parents with high education have a high family income and fewer siblings hence they are associated with a high probability of higher spending on private tutoring. In China, incidences of individual training are substantially increasing at an alarming rate. According to a study carried out by China Family Panel Study in 2010, it was evident that students who attended private tutoring had a higher performance in their studies hence a high number of them obtained the minimum entry grade for higher level education (Zhang and Xie 2015). Also, individual coaching was typical among the top income earners. On the same note, students from the low-income earners obtained poor grades since their parents could not afford to pay for a tutor. Significantly, a low number of the students achieved the entry grade hence only a few number got a chance to attend the high level of education. For instance, tutoring experiences depend on the socioeconomic status of a family; therefore, the poor continue becoming poor and rich becoming more prosperous. By so doing, the gap between the two identities increases hence creating a social difference. With the increasing development of private tutoring markets in China, unequal investment in academic tutors will become a useful instrument for generating and maintaining educational inequality (Zhang and Xie 2015).

Remarkably, education enables best students to attend better schools while poor candidates participate in vocational training school hence creating a social inequality among the rural and urban students in China. According to Ling (2015), a school like Newton Vocation School (NVS) is meant for hooligans who are believed to have been sent away from middle schools as a result of poor performance or misbehavior. According to a study carried out in China, students from urban schools tend to perform better than the ones from rural areas. On the same note, there are vocational schools which are created for students who are poor or with low performance after their senior level academics (Ling 2015). Due to an increased rate of unemployment, individuals move to urban areas in search of a job to satisfy their needs. Some leave their children in the rural areas while others migrate with them. The children at home perform poorly in their studies due to lack of parental guidance while doing their homework. On the same note, children who migrate to urban areas find it difficult to get a good school due to poor performance and perception of students from rural areas by the downtown school’s management. Their parents end up taking their children to vocational classes which are a bit cheaper for peasants. Additionally, the parents cannot afford to pay for private tutors as well as they have little time for their children guidance in academics. Henceforth, their performance in school is low as compared to one of the children from well up families. Similarly, migrant children who fail to secure a place in the public schools have an option of attending vocational schools. In 2008, the Shanghai Education Bureau set up approximately 32 public professional schools with the aim of admitting more than 2000 peasant employees’ children (Ling 2015). The school also accepted students who failed to attain a grade for higher level studies hence delaying their pressure of unemployment while maintaining sociopolitical stability. The vocational schools serve as a stigma since most of the students are marginalized. The non-locals and the rural are discriminated as most of them cannot take the senior high school entrance examination in spite of their preference and performance. On the same note, the students in vocational schools are discriminated on the ground that their admission is due to their low performance hence they lack intelligence, morality, and discipline. Additionally, socioeconomic background heightens the stigmatization in these institutions. Consequently, their teachers are reluctant which is evident on poorly prepared lectures, showing favoritism during student evaluation, turning a blind eye regarding student’s inattentiveness and giving fewer assignments to the students (Ling 2015). By so doing, a social gap is created due to education provision among the Chinese people.

Similarly, education has played a role in shaping better marriage negotiations in China. Historically, parents played a significant role in looking for their kid’s spouses. Marriage was extensively based on emotional interests rather than material possessions. However, in 1950 the Chinese government passed marriage law that prohibited concubine and arranged marriage hence giving partners a right of freedom to choose their marriage partners (Obendiek 2016). Since then, marriage institutions have been based on material and wealth possession. According to Obendiek (2016), high-income parents invest a lot in their children academics hence they still have a say concerning their children’s marriage. The issue of marriage based on education has significantly affected men. For instance, educated people prefer marrying individuals of the same rank as it regards academic levels for financial benefit. According to Obendiek (2016), men tend to marry downwards while women marry upwards in a socioeconomic hierarchy. Men who are well educated can choose to either marry a person of the same rank or marry a lady less educated. However, most of the well up family put a lot of pressure on their kids to marry people of their status to eliminate poverty hence live a decent life. On the other hand, men who are not educated find it challenging to get spouses as most ladies will shy away from them. In a society like China where a lot of emphases is laid on academic performance, marriages based on academic achievement have created a significant gap in the community. Individuals from the poor backgrounds suffer a lot as they keep on becoming poorer while the ones from the rich and educated families become richer hence social inequality in the society (Obendiek 2016).

Moreover, education is significant since educated fellows can easily access healthcare insurance in China thus creating disparities. In China, the medical cost has substantially increased rapidly due to economic expansion (Weixiang and Tong 2016). Initially, the government used to subsidize medical facilities specifically for people living in the rural areas to make the services affordable to them. However, the poor people particularly those living in rural areas find it difficult to access this facility based on the fact that the quality of medical services offered by the government health insurance is often incomparable to medical services rendered by market-based Health insurance. Also, it is usually believed that education exerts the most substantial impact on health outcome due to occupation and educational income. According to China and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), a majority of the employee individuals stand a better chance in accessing health insurance facilities since employers provide work-based health cover (Weixiang and Tong 2016). Also, the human capital theory argues out that people who are well educated are more productive than the unemployed and to keep them employers have a mandate to offer them with better welfare benefits. On the same note, educated people have enough income to purchase health insurance covers for them and their families. Therefore, education creates a wide gap between the educated and those not trained.

Conclusion

In summary, we can argue that the Chinese people place enormous emphasis on education since the elites need to be seen as well-educated rather than powerful or wealthy. For instance, most of the educated Chinese parents understand well the importance of education as it is viewed as the only way to success in life. Significantly, the parents invest a lot in academic matters of their children through hiring private tutors to increase their children’s performance at school (Zhang and Xie 2015). On the same note, they take their children to better schools especially in urban areas to obtain a quality education. A lot of emphases is laid on learning too when it comes to matters pertaining marriage. An educated parent always pressures their children to marry people of the same rank for economic purposes (Obendiek 2016). Therefore, a lot of emphases is laid on academic performance in China. On the same note, education has played a role in creating social differences among the members of the society. The poor people or fewer income earners cannot afford quality education and also cannot afford to pay for private tutoring for their children hence low performance and transition to higher level institutions. Also, uneducated men find it difficult during marrying process as they can marry only the illiterate ladies. Therefore, education has resulted in the creation of a social difference in China.

References

Anning, H. (2014). “Reassessing Disparity in Access to Higher Education.” The China Quarterly 220, 1123-1130.

Davis-Kean, P.E. (2005). ”The Influence of Parent Education and Family Income on Child Achievement: The Indirect Role of Parental Expectations and the Home Environment.” Journal of Family Psychology 19(2): 294-304. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.19.2.294

Ling, M. (2015). ””Bad Students Go To Vocational Schools!” Education, Social Reproduction and Migrant Youth in Urban China.” The China Journal 73, 107-131.

Obendiek, H. (2016). ”Rural Family Backgrounds, Higher Education, and Marriage Negotiations in Northwest China” Modern Asian Studies 50(4), 1250-1276. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X15000499

Weixiang, L. and Tong, Y. (2016). ”Educational Disparities in Access to Health Insurance in China, 1989–2009” Chinese Sociological Review 48(2), 137-161.

Zhang, D., Li, X. and Xue, J. (2015). ”Education Inequality between Rural and Urban Areas of the People’s Republic of China, Migrants’ Children Education, and Some Implications.” Asian Development Review 32(1), 196-224. 10.1162/ADEV_a_00042

Zhang, Y. and Xie, Y. (2015).” Family Background, Private Tutoring, And Children’s Educational Performance in Contemporary China.” Chinese Sociological Review 48(1), 64-82. 10.1080/21620555.2015.1096193