Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

China’s battery-farm schools

The Chinese education system is beyond intense, writes <i>Cindy Yu</i>. The exam results are astonishing but the students’ lives are harsh

In the early morning light, the sleepy students of Hengshui Senior Secondary School are putting on their tracksuits in the dimly lit dormitories. It’s 5.30 a.m. By the time lessons begin at 7.45 they have already had morning exercise, an hour of self-study and a balanced breakfast. Under a strict regime that you might think belonged at a correctional centre, the youngsters are getting ready for another day in this high-achieving school in China.

As one of the country’s ‘exam factories’, Hengshui has perfected the art of battery-farming children to produce exceptional results. A day in the life of the Hengshui student consists of a constant loop of work, rest, exercise, feed. In each day a student has ten 40-minute lessons. After dinner comes 20 minutes of TV; usually to catch up with current affairs rather than the Kardashians. After three more hours of study, books are packed up at 9.50, almost 16 hours after they were first opened. Any gossip or free time must be packed into a ten-minute gap before lights out at ten. And repeat.

As anyone who has watched the BBC show Are Our Kids Tough Enough? will know, the length and regimentation of the school day are not the only differences between the Chinese and the British systems. Unlike the interactive lessons valued by the British system, where everyone is a winner and peer comparison is discouraged for fear of upsetting the children, the Chinese system is brutal and its teachers are fierce. It isn’t the done thing to challenge this authority, which leads to a lack of critical thinking in classrooms, where the teacher and the textbooks always hold the correct answers.

The much-coveted prize of the intense system is university admission, won by succeeding in the gaokao, an annual three-day exam session.

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