Introduction
The need for education is universal, however when a third of the world is in china. The need of for good education is paramount to ensure a sustainable, successful system. In the past china put a lot of effort in educating it populace. Different governments work towards ensuring a rigid system that would educate and develop different talents to feed the needs of science, technology, knowledge and arts, from basic education to high education. China has ensured substantive investments to ensure education in all levels of the Chinese society in urban and remote rural areas. Unlike America Chinese, system design aims to service its huge population. The American system of education focuses at producing students fully equipped with leadership skills and another day to day skill that have little to do with academia. The paper analyzes all levels of education, starting from kindergarten school, primary school, secondary school, and higher education divided into academic and vocational. Similarly, the paper compares Chinese college education to American education and finalizes by discussing Du Bois probable point of view towards education to day.
Education in china forms into three sections namely basic, higher, and adult education in the world, china education is the largest system of education. In the year 2014, 9.39 million students, took the National Higher Education Entrance Examination (Gao Kao) in June. In total Tan (212) states that the Chinese governments spend 4% of its total GDP. In the year, 1986 education in china become compulsory for all children. The law stipulated that every child had to get up to nine years of education. The result of the law brings us to today estimation of 99.7% literacy in the current populace.
Basic
Basic education in china forms into three sections; these include Kindergarten education, primary education and normal secondary education. Kindergarten also known as pre-school lasts a period of three years. Children in china start schooling at the age of three and go on until age six when they are eligible for entry to elementary school, which have whose academic year, divides into two semesters. Secondary education breaks down into two sections namely academic secondary education and vocational/specialized/ technical secondary education. Academic secondary education gets delivered by upper middle schools and academic lower. Students from lower middle schools take a local examination in cases where they want to continue to their education. The results garnered decide whether the students will get into a vocational system or an upper Education system or Vocational schools usually offer programs, which take from two to four years. The aim is to train farmers, middle-level workers, and technical support for managerial positions. Technical schools in china offer programs through four years, to train intermediate personnel. Schools for skilled workers offer junior middle school graduates for positions to do with operational and production skills for three years.
In china there are a total of 87,665 secondary schools and 280,184 primary and secondary schools with 17, 388, 465 students total enrollment. These accounts for 99% of the primary school age children. Similarly, these got repeated in vocational schools where 99% enrollment gets recorded.
Higher
Higher education includes two to three years at the undergraduate level in junior colleges. Bagnall (54) notes that these colleges known as four years, short cycle colleges, and universities do offer similar vocational subjects. Colleges and universities offer programs aimed at the Master degree or Ph.D. degree. Higher education in china divides into three and four year programs. Both short cycle colleges, universities and colleges offer former programs. However, these does not always lead to bachelor’s degree.
Adult
In china, Adult education overlaps all the three stages; in the case of adult primary adult, attend workers primary schools, literacy classes and peasant primary schools. Adult secondary schools, on the other hand, include TV/Radio, Cadres specialized secondary schools; staff specialized secondary schools; peasants’ specialized secondary school and specialized secondary school for correspondence. Adult higher education involves TV/ Radio universities, workers colleges, Cadre colleges, correspondence colleges, educational colleges and peasant colleges. Bagnall (71) states most colleges offer two to three years cycle curricula with a few offering regular curricular for undergraduate.
International students
China maintains provision of education to international students. Most of foreign students study in high schools, colleges, and universities. Currently over 746 institutions of higher educational have foreign students enrolled in their systems. Bagnall (88) points out that foreign students studying in china have increased in the recent years.
Teaching
Currently, a senior secondary school consists of two parts, courses subjects and activities. Subjects followed by teachers in secondary schools fall into two sections one obligatory and the other optional. Usually, teaching involves, practice activities and out-class activities.
Teaching Materials
All teaching materials including textbooks get tested before approval in china. These apply for both the secondary and primary schools. Textbooks and examination approval committee analyze content before publication in terms of ideology, scientific and adaptability to the classroom instruction. All textbooks get approved by departments at the local schools supplementary materials for teaching can be used once approved by the provincial level school Textbook Examination and Approval Committee of the concerned province (Yu, 77).
COMPARISON OF CHINESE COLLEGE EDUCATION TO A TYPICAL AMERICAN ONE
The educational system in china has major similarities to those of the United States. These, however, is not to say there are no differences that stem largely from the difference in population. Yu,(77) adds that the culture in the two respective countries largely lead to differences. The main comparable areas in between the two systems are the logistics of the education systems, student’s experiences, and college campuses
In Chinese colleges, the system is rigid and is riddled with guidelines however in the US there is a lot more freedom marked with fewer restriction. One example is students in the US colleges have the opportunities to choose their classes while in china from kindergarten classes get predetermined all the way to colleges. Tan (201) points out that the reason for rigidity is simply the high student populace, which would make the system extremely complicated if every student decided his or her class.
Unlike in china in the US competition in schools is not as much mostly because of the huge population: These means that the threshold for crossing from secondary to college or higher is high (Zhu, 194). However, points out that the final exams like Gao Kao are significantly harder in China than in the US SAT exams. The exams similarly like in America determine the college students get to. The only difference between students in America after exams is that the colleges pick the students in America. In china, students pick their possible areas of interest in majors and then colleges using their grades as a guide pick them.
Once the student have passed their Gao Kao exams in china and accepted into colleges they then choose a major. The major difference when picking majors in colleges in china and those in America is the Chinese are more restricted when doing so than the Americans Kostoff et al, 93). The major reason for these is the population difference. Interestingly unlike Chinese students Americans can choose their courses anytime and can change them severally over the course of their education. In china, on the other hand, families participate in determining majors followed by their children long before they reach high institutions.
In terms of vacations, American students have a three-month vacation period. However, their Chinese counterparts get far less time in comparison in the entire year. Summer vacations last a month and a half and one month during the winter: These means that the Chinese students spend an extra two months in school, than the Americans each year (Kostoff et al, 93).
In china, most college institutions are government operated. Most students in china prefer the government owned universities, which usually get preserved for the best students who have scored high grades in Gao Kao exams. The rest of the student populace goes to private institutions.
W.E.B. DU BOIS CHOICE OF EDUCATION SYSTEM
If Du Bois was present to date he would definitely state his desire for all to have some sought of higher education he would propose determined progressive action that was pushed by social change and action. He would equally stand against exclusion, discrimination, and oppression in the education system. Additionally he would push and encourage an empirical approach to studying and conceived categories. DU Bois would, choose academic education system
During his time, Booker T. Washington was a popular educator. Washington believed in trade skills and industrial education, which he believed, would elevate the African Americans and give them white community respect. Du Bois however considered Washington’s stress on industrial education only saw African American remain in the lowest economic and social classes. Du Bois wish was to see African Americans rise high in arts and sciences. His desire was for all to have equal rights, and his chosen path was academic education for all. He encouraged African Americans to work hard in every career. Du Bois demanded excellence and according to him; there was no better way than attaining academic education (Du Bois Review Contributors, 5).
CONCLUSION
Chinese governments put great importance to its educational system. The implementation of compulsory education system saw the Chinese population get broadly educated. The aggressive nature of the system suffers from the high number of students who increasingly compete for the few places in government institutions. From as young as three years Chinese students progressively attend, school diverging to different programs determined by their grades. The Chinese system emphasizes on examination and thus the education system design gets geared towards achieving high grades Bagnall (124). Education in china compared to the US is as stated before very aggressive in nature owing to the huge number of students. In line with Du Boise, statement of academic education for all china has observed these through provision of quality education to all through public institutions.
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