Editor’s note: This article, translated from wenxuecity.com, discusses the quality of education at China’s “super schools”, a new breed of schools with overcrowded classrooms and teachers shouting through megaphones to be heard. While the official line is that these super schools actually provide excellent quality education, with many of its students landing in prestigious university programmes upon graduating, one wonders when recognition of the merits of small teaching classes got lost on officials, teachers and parents alike. As the author asks, can these giant factory-like schools really provide a good education?

Classes of over a hundred students. Thirty or forty classes in each grade. Thousands of students enrolled in the same school. These are not universities, but a growing number of middle schools and high schools known as “super schools” that in many places have become the status quo.

On one side, students and parents clamor to enroll in the already crowded schools while on the other side various scholars and general public opinion has come out against these massive schools. One of the most famous examples of a “super school” is Hengshui High School in Hebei. The school has record-breaking numbers for the college entrance exam. Will this become the example for education in China or are these schools too similar to “educational factories”?

“Super school” teachers use megaphones in class

“Our school has a number of very large classes. Each class has over 100 students. The teacher uses a megaphone in order to teach the class.” “Hengshui High School’s college entrance exam scores were very high. Nine students enrolled in the top 10 humanities programmes for universities in Hebei, six students enrolled in top 10 Hebei Province science programmes and 67 students enrolled in top 100 Hebei Province humanities programmes and 51 students enrolled in top 100 Hebei Province science programs.” The above popular online posts recently triggered debate on the topic of Hengshui High School and similar “super schools.”

Number of students: An example of this is Maotanchang High School in Lu’an, Anhui. The high school has about more students than there are undergraduates at Peking University. In fact, the high school has almost a thousand more students than Peking University’s undergrad does. Netizens ask, “With high schools enrolling tens of thousands of students, how can universities deal with this?”

Teachers: Reporters found that “super schools” in the north and the south generally monopolize the student population in the area because of the quality of their educational resources. Students from these schools do extremely well in cultural studies, arts and physical education. The general level of quality is very high; therefore these schools have a strong “cluster effect” and attract more high-quality students and teachers. Because of this “cluster effect” the quality of other schools in the area is starkly decreased.

Schools: “Super schools” monopolize high-quality students and teachers and therefore have a “super” high threshold. The schools attract many potential students and parents. Desperate parents try many different ways to squeeze their students into the already overflowing classes. An anonymous parent of a student in Shenyang said that parents must pay 120,000 Yuan to enroll their child into one of the local “super schools.”

Is a “super school” education a real education?

Secondary schools in China are becoming more and more bloated. Parents and many experts believe that large schools can more effectively meet the needs of students eager for high quality education and high test scores. However, many educational experts believe that these “super schools” have become more like “modern factories” than high schools.

A parent in Shenyang said, “My child is in their third year of middle school this year in Liaoning Province at a key middle school. For 20 years, the school had the best test results in the region for students entering high school. My child has been admitted to three of the top high schools in the province. At the key middle school, the classes had 50 students with 26 classes in total. The entire school had about 1,300 students. The advantages of attending a ‘key’ school are clear.”

Ye Shuitao, vice president of the Jiangsu Province Institute of Education believes that issues with the existing educational system lies in the uneven distribution of resources between schools. However, he noted that this problem cannot be solved overnight. Ye said, “Many people see Hengshui High School as an excellent model in dealing with the existing college entrance examination system.”

“In these ‘super schools’, the number of students is too large. Although the teachers are well equipped to deal with the large numbers of students, student life and learning space is limited. For example, in some large schools students from different years have to schedule their break activities at different times because of sheer student numbers,” said a “super school” teacher in Shenyang.

Nanjing Normal University Professor Zhang Xinping said, “Over the years, these giant secondary schools have become an increasingly serious problem. The number of large schools has grown because the government promotes these kinds of schools and it is easier for large schools to attract fame and fortune.”

Xiong Bingji, associate dean of research at 21st Century Education, believes that there was a large investment in 12 different large secondary schools while most other secondary schools were completely ignored. This violates the idea of equal rights to education. However, most people not only accept this phenomenon but want a part of it – parents will use any means possible to try to send their children to these schools. This has become a long-term issue for the educational system and for leaders in education.

How big is too big?

Education experts believe that “super schools” are created because of unequal educational resources and administrative pursuit for high rankings and test scores. Experts say that this issue can be gradually resolved by reducing administrative intervention, resolve the inequalities in educational funding and bring back the “right to teach.” This “right to teach” would mean that each school would be free to develop curriculum according to its own characteristics. Many experts believe that this is the only correct course of education.

Xiong Bingji said, “The idea that large schools attract more students and therefore are able to become famous is a misunderstanding. Actually, there are very few schools that are world-famous. Furthermore, these “super schools” ruin the ecological balance of the education system.”

Zhang Xinping believes that all parents expect their children to be able to access a high-quality education. However, there is not necessary a correlation between a quality education and the size of a school. Primary and secondary schools are not organised and managed the same way as universities are. When primary and secondary schools become too large, the leadership and its goals will ultimately crash and burn. The effectiveness of these large schools will then also decrease.

Some education experts say that if a school is seen as a standardised workshop that produces specific parts or if it is managed like a military camp, then a larger student population is better and more effective. However, a school is not a production line or a training camp. A school should focus on the individual development of students and teachers. The current situation can only be improved if schools become more self-aware and are able to better reflect on the educational process.

Source: wenxuecity.com

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Keywords: Hengshui High school Chinese super schools education in China