"Bribes needed to enter China’s top schools; Connections key despite spotlight on corruption" by William Wan | Washington Post, October 27, 2013
BEIJING — Reining in corruption has been the main focus of China’s new president, Xi Jinping. But such campaigns are barely making a dent, critics say, in a country where children are shown as early as elementary school how to game the system.
A true educational system.
Almost everything, from admission to grades to teacher recommendations, is negotiable in Chinese schools if you know the right person or have enough cash, parents and teachers say.
Oh, no kidding.
As a result, many believe, the education system is worsening rather than mending the vast gap between the elite and everyone else in China.
When you read the AmeriKan media long enough you learn that they love to bash China.
Related:
"The findings underscore that elite public and private colleges, despite a stated desire to recruit an economically diverse group of students, have largely failed to do so. Whatever the reasons, the choice frequently has major consequences....Scholarships have become more valuable as tuition increases have outpaced the inflation rate for four decades, saddling borrowers with $1 trillion in education loans. President Obama is pressing colleges to control costs and ease the burden on students."
How about giving them a bailout and wiping their debt clean?
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Even by Western standards, the top public schools are often astounding. During a recent tour of Beijing’s Jingshan School, administrators showed off a $326,000, one-story-high telescope for astronomy lessons, housed in a rotating room with retractable ceiling; flat-screen televisions in every class; pricey computer labs; an Olympic-size pool; and a state-of-the-art hydroponics garden. The school recently began requiring doctorate degrees for all upper-grade teachers.
Related:
"The report spells out the large declines in state appropriations given to public institutions in recent years. These cuts have been blamed for rises in college costs. Other causes often cited range from the high cost of health care for employees to the demand by students for flashier campus amenities."
Back-to-School Series: At the End of the Day
Boston Globe Summer School: Geography Class
I don't know where the hell I am.
Meanwhile, just miles away, at a private school for migrant families, youths walked off a dirt road into a ramshackle facility with cracked walls, overcrowded classes, and a single bathroom consisting of concrete holes in the ground....
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Afghan Classroom
Also see: Flushing This Chinese Post
Which is what I am about to do with this one.
Academic performance still matters greatly, but the hyper-competitiveness has driven many parents to curry favor in any way possible — delivering organic rice to a teacher worried about food safety, bringing back lavish gifts from abroad.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Rancid Rice For Breakfast
And given China's record on food safety....
When all else fails, store gift cards are always a safe bet....
Hey, look, Chri$tma$ in China!
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Related:
"Millions upon millions of young college graduates are entering the “real world” only to discover that they are already financially crippled for decades to come by oppressive student loan debt burdens. Large numbers of young people are even putting off buying homes or getting married simply because of student loan debt.
Related:
"Millions upon millions of young college graduates are entering the “real world” only to discover that they are already financially crippled for decades to come by oppressive student loan debt burdens. Large numbers of young people are even putting off buying homes or getting married simply because of student loan debt.
So why is this happening? Well, a big part of the problem is that the cost of college tuition has gotten wildly out of control. Since 1978, the cost of college tuition has risen even more rapidly then the cost of medical care has. Tuition costs at public universities have risen by 27 percent over the past five years, and there appears to be no end in sight.
We keep encouraging our young people to take out all of the loans that are necessary to pay for college, because a college education is supposedly the “key” to their futures.
But is that really the case?
Sadly, the reality of the matter is that millions of young Americans are graduating from college only to discover that the jobs that they were promised simply do not exist.
In fact, at this point about half of all college graduates are working jobs that do not even require a college degree.
This is leading to mass disillusionment with the system. One survey found that 70% of all college graduates wish that they had spent more time preparing for the “real world” while they were still in college.
And because so many of them cannot get decent jobs, more college graduates then ever are finding that they cannot pay back the huge student loans that they were encouraged to sign up for.
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Class dismi$$ed!
