#educationaldisparities

While talking with Fan this Saturday, we discussed some interesting things.

One of which was the “Affirmative Action” of China

Apparently, China has a law that requires universities to let in a certain quota of minority students. If you don’t know, China has about 52 defined minority groups, most of which live in the middle or west of China. The majority Han population also happens to be heavily concentrated in the East (where most of the population is concentrated).

Additionally you may or may know that China has a HUGE range of wealth and education levels. The 1st tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai live at a very high standard of living, a high level of modernity, and generally pretty high public education (especially Shanghai whose students have tested very high on an international test called PISA). However, the interior of the country has a lower level of education and especially rural areas are still considered “third world” areas. Thus, education in rural provinces can be QUITE poor.

But, China’s college entrance process is based almost entirely off of student’s scores on a test known as the gao kao  (translation: high test). So if students have a lower education level, it’s difficult to get a score as good as a student from a big city. Not only are the fundamental education levels lower, but the poorer family lacks money to send students to extra tutoring for the exam.

So, all of this background brings us down to the fact that Chinese universities are required to except a certain amount of minority students and the students don’t have to have the same scores as their majority peers. For instance, if the regular standard is 800, the minority students could get a 600 and still get admitted. (Numbers are example only. The disparity is not clear.)

Okay. This is pretty standard. Trying to compensate for unequal distribution of societal resources by giving students with these lower circumstances a break. We essentially try to do the same thing with Affirmative Action in the USA.

Fan said that while he thinks the policy makes sense on a societal level, it’s really hard as a professor to have students with drastically different levels of ability.  Which makes sense.

But this is where it gets really interesting.

The standard stays different in college for their graduation requirements.

While majority students have to have a 70% to pass a class, minority students are allowed to pass with a 50%.

Think about this. Minority students are allowed to graduate while not having succeeded as well in their classes.

I asked Fan. I said, aren’t universities worried about sending sub-par students out into the workforce and having some companies not respect their quality of student?

Short answer: No.

Why? Because most of minority students are expected to go back to their home provinces and work. The idea is that even a sub standard education from a really good university in Shanghai or Beijing is better than a “normal” education at a university in their home province. Apparently, even only passing all your Shanghai university classes by 50% still gives you a better education than passing all your lesser universities classes by 70+%.

My second question was: why do you need this double standard. Can’t you just expect the students with a lower education level to have to study more? No, says Fan. The education disparities are so large that the students can’t necessarily compensate for it. He says some of the information that they should have learned in middle school is not the same, not information that can be fixed with some extra time in professor’s office hours. While interesting, this is frankly extremely sad.