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Yao Yang: Ten-Year Compulsory Education to Shun Involution and Spur Innovation

Aug 09-2021   



Education has been in the eye of a regulatory cyclone of late. Primary and middle schools are required to strengthen their roles, while companies offering after-school training programs are seeing their space tightly squeezed. How to conduct systematic education reforms to both address the involution of an examination-obsessed society and contribute to China’s industrial upgrading and modern economic undertakings? Prof. Yao Yang, Dean of the NSD, shares his views in an exclusive media interview.

 

The problem with current education system, Prof. Yao says, is that it turns some gifted children into unaspiring commoners. Toiling over an unnecessary amount of homework, students waste precious time at the expense of fostering their creativity and the building of an innovation-driven society. To truly reduce the burden of children and their families, Prof. Yao proposes ten-year compulsory education in which parents are prohibited from choosing schools for their children and no ‘super middle schools’ will be allowed (these are schools fixated on getting high scores on university-entrance exams and therefore extremely popular with some parents).

 

Making senior high school compulsory, which is not now, would be imperative for ridding involution, says Prof. Yao. If 12-year compulsory education is unaffordable for the state, then going for a ten-year one is viable: five years in primary school and five more for junior and senior high combined. Pupils of primary schools will be randomly assigned to middle schools and all will be guaranteed a place in senior high, the period that currently causes most anxiety among parents due to its direct linkage to chances for university enrollment. Ten-year compulsory education shall suffice to groom a child for studying at most universities; a one-year prep can be arranged if additional knowledge is required by a university.

 

Prof. Yao decries some proposals that seek to send almost half of junior high graduates to occupational schools, purportedly to educate blue collars sorely needed by the economy. Every child aged 14 to 15 aspires to further growth; it’ s advisable that they make the decision about their career – to attend an occupational school or university – when they finish senior high and are more mature intellectually, agues Prof. Yao. One additional benefit of such an arrangement is that more qualified occupational school graduates will be produced to meet the needs of China’s industries moving up value chains.

 

Universities should take in more students and place less importance on the score of the university entrance exam. As such, students can focus on not just academic performance but also the development of their talents, which will offer great impetus to the construction of an innovation-driven society, says Prof. Yao.

Yao Yang: Ten-Year Compulsory Education to Shun Involution and Spur Innovation

Aug 09-2021   



Education has been in the eye of a regulatory cyclone of late. Primary and middle schools are required to strengthen their roles, while companies offering after-school training programs are seeing their space tightly squeezed. How to conduct systematic education reforms to both address the involution of an examination-obsessed society and contribute to China’s industrial upgrading and modern economic undertakings? Prof. Yao Yang, Dean of the NSD, shares his views in an exclusive media interview.

 

The problem with current education system, Prof. Yao says, is that it turns some gifted children into unaspiring commoners. Toiling over an unnecessary amount of homework, students waste precious time at the expense of fostering their creativity and the building of an innovation-driven society. To truly reduce the burden of children and their families, Prof. Yao proposes ten-year compulsory education in which parents are prohibited from choosing schools for their children and no ‘super middle schools’ will be allowed (these are schools fixated on getting high scores on university-entrance exams and therefore extremely popular with some parents).

 

Making senior high school compulsory, which is not now, would be imperative for ridding involution, says Prof. Yao. If 12-year compulsory education is unaffordable for the state, then going for a ten-year one is viable: five years in primary school and five more for junior and senior high combined. Pupils of primary schools will be randomly assigned to middle schools and all will be guaranteed a place in senior high, the period that currently causes most anxiety among parents due to its direct linkage to chances for university enrollment. Ten-year compulsory education shall suffice to groom a child for studying at most universities; a one-year prep can be arranged if additional knowledge is required by a university.

 

Prof. Yao decries some proposals that seek to send almost half of junior high graduates to occupational schools, purportedly to educate blue collars sorely needed by the economy. Every child aged 14 to 15 aspires to further growth; it’ s advisable that they make the decision about their career – to attend an occupational school or university – when they finish senior high and are more mature intellectually, agues Prof. Yao. One additional benefit of such an arrangement is that more qualified occupational school graduates will be produced to meet the needs of China’s industries moving up value chains.

 

Universities should take in more students and place less importance on the score of the university entrance exam. As such, students can focus on not just academic performance but also the development of their talents, which will offer great impetus to the construction of an innovation-driven society, says Prof. Yao.