OPINION> Brendan John Worrell
Top of the class south of the lake
(Brendan John Worrell (chinadaily.com.cn))
Updated: 2009-07-22 15:27

Back in 2005 a TV talent show called Super Voice Girl took China by storm wracking in close to 18 million yuan. Produced by Hunan’s Golden Eagle the program captivated viewers and allowed them to sms their vote directly to the studio. In the same innovative light Hunan, which means south of the lake, have got heads turning again, this time for their reforms in high school education.

 Last week their local authorities announced that high school students would no longer be separated into science and liberal arts streams. This move is designed to free up the study timetable to include more room for elective subjects and a comprehensive all round education. The reform is the first of its kind in China and is long overdue!

 If you’ve ever been to the zoo you will realize what boredom and the same unchanging environment can do to an animal. Humans are no different. Look at a worker who comes into the same office everyday and see how their natural enthusiasm can decline with increasing familiarity. Likewise in the classroom, diversity, variation and a greater range of input can engage young minds to truly excel.

But for years, students in China and beyond have been treated like bovine, branded as either good at math and science or alternatively the liberal arts. For most there never seemed to be a middle path. Unless you had parents with money who could send you to an exclusive school that embraced best practice. Here the tuition for one year at such a high school can set you back 80 000rmb, a cost most cannot afford.

Beyond just the prohibitive cost of attending such inaccessible high quality schools, the traditional mode of dividing students into two main streams is unreasonable. Students simply have been deciding which stream to enter at a time when most have no real idea of who they are or what they are interested in.

What’s more in China, most youngsters never have a chance to do part-time work after school, such exposure which could actually help refine their interests. For better or worse they are too busy studying for tests that more often than not have little practical application to the real world.

So as it happens frequently students’ parents decide for them what they will study and the kids go along living a half existence, devoid of passion and real engagement. This life determining decision is further complicated by the onset of puberty which does strange things distracting many a student.

Speaking for myself I gravitated towards the liberal arts stream but this decision was heavily influenced by my teachers at the time. I was to later train as a welfare worker, language teacher and now work in communications. But coming full circle, two decades later, I find myself increasingly gravitating towards the business news - reading for pleasure. Aspects of engineering, architecture and physics also fascinate me.

I think also many women would look back and say they were interested in science and math but were encouraged towards the humanities because that was what was expected. Nevertheless increasing numbers are breaking through the gender glass ceilings in law, finance and management and ideally education should be facilitating this rather than stereotyping individuals into just two main categories.

Obviously there are going to be challenges in the adoption of the new measures being introduced south of the lake. Funding and the availability of qualified teachers will still be of prime concern. Nevertheless when people are being increasingly told to innovate to survive in the 21st century I can only applaud the courage of the Hunan authorities.

The Deputy Director of the Provincial Education Department Ge Jianzhong was quoted by Xinhua as saying that the reform will have little impact on the college entrance examination but who knows – fingers crossed – maybe in time this too will also be fine tuned. At the same time greater equity allowing rural populations to even access senior high school will still remain a priority.