Chapter 131
One Child Policy
The one child policy started in 1980. Most of my students came from one child families. Many of the teachers that I knew had brothers and sisters. Nothing wrong with one child in a family, I am one of those. Parents and grandparents spoil that child of course but nothing wrong with that either. It's nice for the child.
A good education is the main priority that the parents want for their child. A lot of times as the child is growing up, the parents do not teach their child to do household things like cleaning, washing clothes and picking up things in their rooms. They will do it for the child so the child can spend more time studying and doing homework to get better grades and will be able to go to a better university in order to get a better job, have money to do things and also take good care of the parents when they get older.
That’s how it is done in China, you take care of your parents when they are older. That is part of the culture. It is different than in the US. Yes, sometimes a parent will stay with their children when they have health problems or they go to an assisted living place or a nursing home. As time goes on, there are more of those places showing up in China also.
The one-child policy penalized couples in terms of fines and employment options if they had more than one child. Exceptions were made in rural areas in cases where the first-born child was a girl. If the first-born was a girl, they were allowed to have another child in hopes of having a boy so he could help on the farm.
In 2013, there was a change in the one child policy. I remember being in China when it was talked about. If either the husband, wife or both came from a one child family, they were allowed to have a second child. There was an exception to that rule. If you are an only child and lived in one of the top three most populated provinces, then you cannot have a second child. Henan, where Luoyang is, is one of the three.
There was another change starting on January 1, 2016. The Chinese Government changed the law so that all married couples are allowed to have two children. There were three problems that showed up because of the One Child Policy. The first one was that there ended up being more males than females. The second one was that there were becoming more elderly people and not enough younger ones for the workforce and the third problem was if the child in the family died, either as a child or an adult, there was no one to take care of the parents when they got older.
The one-child policy penalized couples in terms of fines and employment options if they had more than one child. Exceptions were made in rural areas in cases where the first-born child was a girl. If the first-born was a girl, they were allowed to have another child in hopes of having a boy so he could help on the farm.
In 2013, there was a change in the one child policy. I remember being in China when it was talked about. If either the husband, wife or both came from a one child family, they were allowed to have a second child. There was an exception to that rule. If you are an only child and lived in one of the top three most populated provinces, then you cannot have a second child. Henan, where Luoyang is, is one of the three.
There was another change starting on January 1, 2016. The Chinese Government changed the law so that all married couples are allowed to have two children. There were three problems that showed up because of the One Child Policy. The first one was that there ended up being more males than females. The second one was that there were becoming more elderly people and not enough younger ones for the workforce and the third problem was if the child in the family died, either as a child or an adult, there was no one to take care of the parents when they got older.
Chapter 132
Sports Meetings
Some sports meetings are held in the Fall, some in the Spring. The students compete against their own classmates most of the time, not with other schools. They hold it on the school grounds.
These first two pictures are not a sports meeting. There is a break at 10:05 each day and the students and teachers do about five minutes of exercises. The students go outside and line up and do either exercises or running. Classes resume at 10:30. If it rains or snows, they do not have exercises. This gives students and teachers a break from their classes and it also refreshes them.
These pictures are of a sports meeting at the Number One Foreign Language School.
The teachers used stopwatches, measure the jumps and record the results.
These last two pictures are at the Number 19 High School.
Chapter 133
Gaokao; University Entrance Exams
Everyone in China knows what Gaokao stands for - those dreaded University Entrance Exams when you are a senior in high school. Sometimes I wonder who those exams are hardest on, the students or the parents. When you are a senior, school is your life and these are the most important exams in your life. You goal is to do well in those entrance exams at the beginning of June.
The exams last two days. Many parents will wait outside of the schools all day. The exams start at 8:30 a.m. and go until 4:30 p.m. There is a break at noon so they can eat. The students have a lot of pressure from parents and teachers. In the cities wherever the exams are held, people that are driving cars are not allowed to honk horns where the testing sites are and whatever else is done so there are no disturbances for the students.
There is cheating that goes on. It is known. There are more deterrents as time goes on to help stop the cheating. There would be more than one teacher in the room during the exams. When more electronic devices came about, if someone on the outside got hold of the exams they might put the answers online before the exams came out and the students could write answers down and hide them on themselves. The schools brought in electronic scramblers so no outside signals could get in. As more time went on, students were not allowed to take their phones or any electronic devices into the school during the exams.
These exams are what can determine your life as far as what university you can go to or if you can go at all. As more and more time goes on, students are doing other things because they know that they will not get a high enough score to get into a university so they don’t take the exams. Some parents are sending their kids to the US and other countries to go to school.
One of my students in 2003 told me that no matter how well you did on the exams throughout the twelve years of school, it all came down to how well you do on the entrance exams. That is what was important.
On July 11, 2015, one of my teacher friends (Yu Huiling) wrote to me telling me that she had helped with correcting the exams. She said “I have attended the work checking exam papers for Grade 12 in another city last month. It is really hard work because there are 860,000 students in total in the whole province (Henan Province). It took more than 400 teachers eight days to finish this work”.
There is cheating that goes on. It is known. There are more deterrents as time goes on to help stop the cheating. There would be more than one teacher in the room during the exams. When more electronic devices came about, if someone on the outside got hold of the exams they might put the answers online before the exams came out and the students could write answers down and hide them on themselves. The schools brought in electronic scramblers so no outside signals could get in. As more time went on, students were not allowed to take their phones or any electronic devices into the school during the exams.
These exams are what can determine your life as far as what university you can go to or if you can go at all. As more and more time goes on, students are doing other things because they know that they will not get a high enough score to get into a university so they don’t take the exams. Some parents are sending their kids to the US and other countries to go to school.
One of my students in 2003 told me that no matter how well you did on the exams throughout the twelve years of school, it all came down to how well you do on the entrance exams. That is what was important.
On July 11, 2015, one of my teacher friends (Yu Huiling) wrote to me telling me that she had helped with correcting the exams. She said “I have attended the work checking exam papers for Grade 12 in another city last month. It is really hard work because there are 860,000 students in total in the whole province (Henan Province). It took more than 400 teachers eight days to finish this work”.
Chapter 134
No Electricity
Both schools that I taught at when I was in Luoyang, furnished an apartment for me. During the time of those exams, the electricity in the apartment buildings where teachers and retired teachers lived would be turned off during the exams so there was enough electricity available to run the air conditioners at the school. This was for two days from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. That way all of the rooms would be cool so it was comfortable for the students. They already have enough pressure during this time.
It never failed, every year when it was time for Gaokao it was hot and humid. It was usually 90-100 degrees, high humidity and without electricity I couldn't run the fan. It was very uncomfortable to stay in my apartment so I would go for a walk sometimes. It was better to be outside in the open air. I would go to Dairy Queen and have some ice cream or go somewhere to eat where it was cool.
When I was at the Number 19 High School, I would take my computer to the school and go to my classroom. My room was not used for the exams so I would connect my computer to the projector. I could work on lessons or play movies on the screen. I could run the AC in my classroom and be comfortable. It wasn’t so bad, I just adapted. The school was used for the exams so there weren't any classes those two days.
Below is an article about security measures used against exam cheaters.
Gaokao Cheaters Face Dire Consequences
(China Daily News; June 7, 2016)
There were 9.4 million students in China, 53,000 of those from Luoyang, that took the exams. The subjects were Chinese, Math and English plus another science or humanities subject of the student’s choice.
At testing sites in Beijing, a monitoring device will be used that can detect invisible earpieces used for cheating.
After passing through multiple checkpoints, including facial recognition, fingerprint verification and a metal detector, students will finally be granted access, not to a bank vault, but to a radio-shielded room where they will take the national college entrance exam.
Chinese authorities are imposing strict measures to prevent cheating in this year’s Gaokao exams. Those who cheat could get 3-7 years in prison.
Local education bureaus are collaborating with public security bureaus to introduce advanced technology that can identify cheaters.
Inner Mongolia will use finger vein recognition, a new generation biometric authentication technique that goes beyond fingerprints, to verify the identity of exam takers.
In Luoyang, Henan Province, local authorities will use drones hovering 500 meters (1600 feet) overhead to intercept any radio signals around the test buildings.
In a number of cities and provinces, including Beijing and Guangzhou, all smartwatches that can transmit data will be banned.
SWAT teams of eight members, also military and police, are involved in this. They are at the schools to arrest anyone caught cheating.
Wireless Products; the exam rooms are strictly monitored to prevent cheating. From hidden earphones and watches, to T-shirts with receivers, students have tried almost all means and ways to get past this.
In previous years, authorities installed metal detectors at entrances to make sure students did not sneak in smartphones, though the detectors have been known to be set off by almost anything, leading to schools in Jilin Province to ban bras with metal fastenings.
First instituted in 1952 under the new Communist government, the Gaokao was suspended during the cultural revolution. Most universities were closed and the remaining colleges were assigned according to the political background rather than academic ability. It was in 1977, the year after Mao's death, that the Gaokao resumed in its modern form. The first sitting was open to generations who had been deprived of the chance to pursue higher education, 5.7 million people enrolled, competing for 220,000 seats. Since 1978, it has been held every summer.
The Gaokao is made up of four three-hour papers; Chinese, English, Math and a choice of either Sciences (Biology, Chemistry or Physics) or Humanities (Geography, History or Politics). The questions are mostly multiple-choice or fill-in-the-gap and are notoriously hard. The Math has been compared to university level Math in the UK. But for many students, the most intimidating element is the essay in the Chinese exam. Students are given an hour to write on one of two prompts, which are often infuriatingly elliptical. Prompts in 2015 included "Do butterfly wings have colors?" and "Who do you admire the most, a biotechnology researcher, a welding engineering technician or a photographer?".
It's no surprise that, for many students, the pressure heaped on them by parents, teachers, and themselves, is overwhelming. It is possible to retake the exam one year later, but if a student continues to fail there is no safety net or alternative path to a university.
Suicides are a regular feature of every exam season. A 2014 study claimed that exam stress was a contributing factor in 93% of cases in which school students took their own lives. Last year, a middle school in Hebei Province fenced off its upper floor dormitory balconies with grates after two students jumped to their deaths in the months leading up to the Gaokao. And the academic stress starts early. In July, a ten year old boy tried to kill himself in oncoming traffic after fighting with his mother about homework. But still the study mill grinds on.
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