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It’s not funny!
Recently in the city where I live, something unusual happened. It has been decided, though not officially announced, that a new first-class/provincial-level key senior high school will be set up and the original one will be reduced to be a second-class key senior high school. And as early as next year, the new school will recruit students, who will be temporally staying in the old school until the new one is built. You might be impressed by the promptness and work efficiency of the local government. You may think the government attaches great importance to education, which is worthy of praise.
However, we have to ask what is the real cause or purpose behind it. Most people here tend to believe it is because the present key school is poorly run; especially the results of this year’s college entrance examination are far from satisfactory, which makes the local officials lose face. Here I have to give you some background information. The so-called old key school was built in the 1990s, with a history of only 18 years. And it was just moved to a new location and rebuilt two years ago! It was famous and widely regarded as one of the best schools in Jiaxing area. It was only recently that the school began to go downwards, with this year the worst ever.
Now we must ask: If that is the reason for building a new key school, who is to take the responsibility for the consequences. Why did they not take effective measures before? Yes, there is much for the school to be desired, especially the management of the students. Yet, we can’t be blind to the following facts:
1. The pay for senior high school teachers has remained the same for quite a few years. Elementary and junior high school teachers got a substantial raise after the performance related pay was carried out. Compared to them, senior high school teachers are poorly paid. Some even get less than a common primary school teacher. As key school teachers, they used to earn more than in other schools. But now what they earn is no more, if not less, than teachers in other schools. How can you ask a horse to run faster if you don’t feed him well?
2. The key school used to enjoy some privileges, for example they can enroll students before other schools to make sure that excellent students are well educated. However, several years ago, the education department began to allow and even encourage a non-governmental school to attract and enroll top students with cheap promises and big baits of money and other benefits, resulting in the drain of excellent students.
3. Just two years ago, the local government decided the key school should expand the enrollment of students, from 8 classes in each grade to 18 classes a grade. People wondered where they could get the qualified teachers and other teaching resources that were needed. Consequently, another wave of outflow of good students unavoidably occurred, which was the last straw of the school.
If you really wanted to change the current situation, why did you so stubbornly choose to do all of those? Foolish decisions amount to abusing powers. The government’s money is not your own, which should be used more wisely. We’ll wait and see, hoping these city fathers will come down and listen to the voices of the people.
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Post comment Comment (10 replies)
- Reply lijuanandrea
- you remind me a phenomena in my hometown, whenever the leaders changed, the buildings in the city will rebuilt again no matter it is necessary or not
- Reply rich
- lijuanandrea: you remind me a phenomena in my hometown, whenever the leaders changed, the buildings in the city will rebuilt again no matter it is necessary or noti guess there are many similar officials in china, which shows there's a big loop-hole in our system. we do need to make some noisee at times. good luck my friend!
- Reply love_is_circle
- It's difficult to prevent such thing I think, the government considers about themselves profit and so-called image of the city only, but the true benefit of their people.
- Reply bluephoebe
- honestly, education resource is far from enough with the rapid development of the society. a new school, no matter built on whatever reasons, is highly welcome by the public. however, we could hardly ignore those unspeakable rules before that. for example, the best schools always happen to be located in the same neighourhood with the government. after city government office is relocated to high-tech zone in chengdu, almost all the best schools, from elementary to high schools, are moved to the same area, more precisely, moved close to Government Quarters. except university, of course. why? is that because that university students are not like elementary and middle school students, they are recruited by residence? no matter what, the result is that the best educational resouces are enjoyed by those government officers. that's the reality in China.
- Reply rich
- love_is_circle: It's difficult to prevent such thing I think, the government considers about themselves profit and so-called image of the city only, but the true benyes you're right. it's a long way to go before we have a clean and efficient government. maybe we can only wait and see.
- Reply rich
- bluephoebe: honestly, education resource is far from enough with the rapid development of the society. a new school, no matter built on whatever reasons, is highli guess the situation here is different. we are having less and less students and the city where we live is a county-level one. there are several huge senior high schools with 18 classes in each grade. with a new school built, some others will have to reduce the enrollment.
i feel officials here are all eager to make some achievements, obsessed with the so-called reforms and care a lot about their faces or images. however, they know little about true education, only paying attention to the end results. what a pity!
- Reply susiee
- Teaching in the senior high schools is a laborious job.Teachers have heavy work loads as well as high pressure coming from the parents and the leaders.They indeed should be paid more.As for the hidden rules of pulling down and rebuilding,I think the common people have already seen through it.Maybe it's happened not only in our country,but also in foreign countries.
- Reply rich
- susiee: Teaching in the senior high schools is a laborious job.Teachers have heavy work loads as well as high pressure coming from the parents and the leadersfirst of all, thank you for your understanding. the opinions expressed here are common among the teachers, who had worked like a dog for so long but got nothing in return but reprimand, just because the results of this year were not up to expectations. if it comes from ordinary people who know little about education, it is understandable; but here it is not the case. local officials just look at the end results. we feel like, to some extent, scapegoats or just victims, who became sinners all at once.
yes as you said there're so many hidden rules in our society. what a sad thing! what is even sadder is we may have to live them for a long time. best of luck!
- Reply hurrymm
- In China, the administration set up a new department only for creating more “officials” and deporting someone he/ she dislikes. Thereby, the old school being replaced by the new one may attributes to some political reasons.
- Reply rich
- hurrymm: In China, the administration set up a new department only for creating more “officials” and deporting someone he/ she dislikes. Thereby, the old schI just cannot agree with you more. what they think of most is their position or political future, not the fundamental interests of the common people.
