Research Paper on "Education in China"

Research Paper 5 pages (1683 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Education in China:

History of Chinese Education:

The history of education in China can be traced back as far as the 16th century B.C during the era of "Xia Dynasty" that is 1523-1027 B.C. As many scholars believe, education in China was the privilege of the elites throughout this period of time. During the spring, autumn and Warring States periods in 770-221 B.C., the teachings of Confucianism were mainly founded on the Four Books and the Five Classics. All through Chinese history Confucianism is probably the biggest influence in the education of that country.

Confucianism employed the basic concept of the gentleman (Chun Tzu) and the peasant (common man or average citizen). Studying Confucianism was restricted to very few people in ancient China because not everyone could be a gentleman in the ancient society. As a result, most of those who were studying Confucianism were from ruling and upper class families. The gentle men were the group of people required to teach in the classics and understand morality. They would in turn perform Chinese cultural traditions and even lay down societal rules for others ("History of Education in China" n.d.).

A form of public education system was later established during the Han dynasty where not only the elites could study in school but the average citizen could also use education as a path of becoming better men or gentlemen. Contrary to the ancient Chinese culture where common people had no need to know why, the first civil service exam was set up during Han dynasty. With Confucianism being one of the key subjects studied for the civil service exam, provincial schools were set up nationwide and the Confucianism education spread all over China. The civil service exam system was used until the Qing dynasty which brought more western influence into the Chinese education system.

Current Education in China:

Chinese education entered a new era of progress with the adoption of the reform policy and opening to the outside world in 1978. Prior to 1946, China had merely 1,300 kindergartens, 289,000 primary schools and 4,266 secondary schools. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, basic education has gained incredible achievements in the last 50 years. For instance, there were 111,800 kindergartens with an enrollment of over twenty million young children in 2002. During the same year, there were a total of 456,900 primary schools with an enrollment of over 120 million students.

During the Worldwide Universities Network conference in London in the year 2007, the dramatic insight of the rapid growth of higher education race in China was presented. Notably, China has now become the major higher education system in the world awarding more university degrees than both the U.S. And India combined. This can partly be attributed to China's population size though it's not only a matter of the sheer size in population. It is reported that university enrolments in China have increased from under 10% of young people in 1999 to over 21% in 2006 (Baker 2007).

Of late, China has been producing 5,000 PhD students a year which is about half the number in the UK, Japan and India. In fact, since 1996, China has gone beyond every other country around the globe except the U.S. In the number of doctoral degrees awarded annually. These numbers have rose to thirty-four thousand in 2006 and is expected to surge past 50,000 yearly in the next three or four years based on current enrolments. If this expectation is met, China will therefore overtake the current world leader i.e. The United States. The conscious policy of investment in higher education also led to this growth in Chinese education. In 1998, China was spending a mere 1% of GDP on higher education a figure that has increased to 4%.

The People's Republic of China has a practice of respecting teachers and honoring the teaching profession since prehistoric times. The current Chinese education was started about one hundred years ago at a time when China was going through drastic changes. This system of education developed quite slowly and lagged far behind the world's modern education because of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal nature of the country's society.

Currently, the Chinese Government has attached great significance to the educational cause and has set up a new socialist education system to improve people's educational achievements. The Government also upholds the basic right to people's education and wastes no time in the development and improvement of new systems of education. This is done through developing all types of schools and school-levels to advance well-developed successors of the socialist cause. Chinese education can currently be divided into four stages which are Pre-school Education, Primary Education, Secondary Education and Higher Education.

While the Pre-school education level is basically for the 3-5 years old children in kindergartens, Primary education for children between 6-11 years old. The primary schools are either managed by local educational authorities or by individuals or by enterprises. Secondary Education, conducted by local governments and different business authorities, is provided to children between 12-17 years old. With the graduates of this level of education holding the same degree as graduates from senior middle schools, public secondary schools include junior and senior middle schools with three years of study ("A Brief Account," 2003).

The higher level of education is offered by colleges, universities, institutes and vocational colleges. This level consists of curriculum for vocational college students, undergraduates, postgraduates and doctoral students. The institutions which offer higher education carry the major tasks of raising courses, doing scientific researches and providing social services.

Current Special Education in China:

In 1990, there were more than 70,000 disabled children enrolled in 1053 special classes and 746 special schools within China. These children were enrolled in 25 schools for the blind, 50 schools for the blind and deaf, 480 schools for the deaf and 191 schools for the mentally handicapped students. The services for these disabled children had been enlarged to residential and self-contained classes in special schools. According to recent statistics, it is estimated that China has over 50 million disabled persons inclusive of the visually handicapped, hearing impaired, mentally retarded, mentally ill, physically disabled and multiply disabled. Out of this an estimated 6.5 million disabled children were between the ages of 7-15 years as well as more than 8 million disabled children between 0-14 years.

Since early 1980s, the Chinese Government has adopted contemporary legislation to support services for the blind, deaf, nonverbal and other disabled citizens. By late 1990, the Chinese government had passed a law that enhanced the integration of special education for the disabled into the national education system. In the special schools, the classic nine-year curriculum for the mentally retarded students include subjects such as Chinese Language, Daily Knowledge, Physical Education, Mathematics, Music, Art, Living Skills and Organized Activities (Mu, Yang & Armfield n.d.).

On the other hand, the six-year curriculum for deaf students not only includes subjects which are similar to those for mentally retarded but also emphasizes on speech, moral training and vocational training. It's also important to note that middle schools for the hearing impaired students take a period of three years. For the blind students, there are two patterns of both primary and middle school combinations. While one of the patterns consists of five years of primary school and four years middle school, the other pattern consists of six years of primary school and three years of middle school. Generally, the curriculum for the blind students in special schools contains twelve areas. The blind students are taught Braille, natural and social science, manual skills and adaptive skills as well as subjects for the deaf and mentally retarded students.

With the great importance that the Chinese government has attached to special education, it has set up a whole set of laws and… READ MORE

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