The challenge today in China is that the cities and high income areas have more resources than the rural areas and the western provinces. The neighborhoods around good schools charge high rent. Students are randomly chosen by a computer that tells you what school to go to in your district. Parents often call the principal to try to get their child in the best schools. In the rural areas the whole village will sponsor a student accepted into university by paying for their books and as many of the costs as they can. The government tries to provide help by paying for the students lunches. This is still clearly a problem for I learned later only 1% of all rural students attend universities.
The number of outbound Chinese students has increased tremendously over the last decade from 39,000 to 400,000. Most of these students attend American universities. On the opposite end the number of foreign students studying in China has increased tremendously as well over the last decade from 52,150 to 328,000. Most of these students, 63%, are from Asia.
It was very interesting listening to how much higher education and education has changed in China. There has been a big push to exchange students and teachers internationally.
After lunch we visited an art museum which was specifically built to house college art students work. The students art work is evaluated at the end of the year and the winners are honored by having their art work displayed in this very nice art museum.
After the art museum we had the opportunity to meet with a teacher and learn about teacher training. It turns out that Ms. Di Yan taught at the high school where one of our participants on the trip graduated in Indianaopolis, Indiana. It used to be that students were taught Russian, this has not surprisingly changed to English. The Chinese public schools are rather different than ours. There are typically 40 students in one class. The classes are 45 minutes long and students typically have a 2 hour break for lunch. The average Chinese teacher only teaches two 45 minute classes in a day. They then have the rest of the day to grade and plan lessons. Ms. Yan said the most difficult part of teaching for a teacher in a China was that Chinese students are too quiet and there isn't a lot of interaction or critical thinking taking place. Teachers used to prefer to lecture in order to keep order in the classroom.
The average teacher in Beijing makes $2,000 to 3,000 a month. However in rural areas teachers may only make $100.00 a month! The government and businesses support primarily the city schools. Teachers need to do a certain amount of professional development to advance on the pay scale. At the district training center teachers and principals research, exchange experiences and receive training. Different areas of China have different ways to train teachers although it is similar in most of the cities.
Teachers are not allowed to decide what textbooks or literature to use in the classroom. The communist government of course decides this. The students also must take a politics or government class where they of course learn about Mao Zedong and the little red book. The presenter when growing up was taught about how bad America was and the threat we posed. Now students are taught that China can surpass the U.S. as the global economic power.
Special education students in China go to segregated schools. Students with learning disabilities are given no accommodations and many leave the general school because they don't receive sufficient instruction.
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