In recently ten years, the business between China and United States is happening with increasing frequency. Both countries got the benefit from the international business and they developed a lot. What is the key point of the successful of the developing? WTO or APEC? The answer is education. Although the education system in these two countries is quite different, there is no doubt the education made the great contribution to the development. If the WTO gave the birth to the international business, then, the education must be the blood of the modern civilization.
Chinese education system
After the reform and opening-up in China, China’s economy makes a great progress. Education also improved a lot. Chinese own education system has turned out a lot of first- rate scholars. What’s more, recent years, students begin to study abroad to get more advanced education from western countries and at the same time, many foreigner students study abroad in China. This kind of communication made the huge contribution to the human society.
China has the greatest population in the world; however, its education system is efficient, it has brought up countless first-rate scholars. Generally, in China, the education system is divided into three categories: basic education, higher education, and adult education. The Compulsory Education Law is the most important part of China’s education system. It says every child has nine years of formal education for free and it is also forced.
Every child starts their educational life in the primary school. The primary education and junior middle school are called basic education in China’s education system. Primary education is a six year education. In primary school, students study core subjects such as Chinese, English, Math, History, Geography, and Science. There is also including political and moral education. The schools daily time is much longer than the primary schools in United States. Schools usually start around 8 am and end around 5 pm. Students will graduate at 6th Grade.
Chinese education system is famous for examinations, but students don't have an examination to enter the Junior Middle school. Junior Middle school is really a higher level in basic education system in which students studying the same core subjects at higher levels. There is an emphasis on sports and physical education as well as those in primary school. At the end of the three years educational life in Junior Middle School, everyone must take an examination. The grade in the examination decides students’ future, senior middle school or vocational school.
Senior middle school is not Compulsory Education any more. Students will pay the tuition and take all kinds of exam to get the degree. Senior middle school is a pre education before the high education. In Senior Middle school, students elect whether to follow science or humanities. These courses are designed to lead to the important National College Entrance Exams. The “National College Entrance Exams”, or called GAO KAO. This exam is almost always required for college admission.
After students pass the National College Entrance Exams, they get the chance to get involved in high education. University and College admission is administered nationally and by admissions committees at provincial level, under the Ministry of Education. Students apply for the institution and departments they wish to attend, listing choices in order of preference. Admission is decided mainly on the results of the entrance exams. (1) Every students in senior middle schools study three years only for this entrance exam. It is the key to the future.
There are hundreds of universities in China, but these universities are divided into different levels due to the quality of education. At the top of the levels are the key universities such as Beijing University and Tsinghua University. Below the top level are various provincial and local institutions university and college. Most universities offer four to five year courses leading to bachelor's degrees. It is also possible to continue to master's and doctorate level. These courses also require taking entrance exam.
In one word, the Chinese education system emphasizes the grade and examination. The students under this education system might feel more stressed, but it really turned out many talented people to make the contribution to the country.
American education system
In Unites States, the education includes two parts: compulsory education and adult education. The compulsory education is required to everyone in the United Sates. It begins from age’s five to eight and ends from ages fourteen to eighteen. The compulsory education can be divided into three levels: elementary school, middle school and high school. During the compulsory education, children are divided by age into different grades.
The education system in United States starts with twelve years of primary and secondary school. This is the compulsory education in the United States. What are the school grades in United States? Usually, Kindergarten to 5th Grade level is called elementary or primary school, 6th Grade to 8th Grade is called middle school and 9th Grade to 12th Grade is called high school. Primary education is the first stage of compulsory education in United States. Normally the primary education begins at around six years old for the U.S. children.
The next step is the secondary schools. This may of 6 or 7 years durations consisting of either two three- year programs, or a three-year and a four-year program. Schools at this level are known as Middle School or Junior High School and High or Senior High School. (2)
After completing high school or the twelfth grade, students are admitted to college or university. This stage is higher education in U.S. Students Study at a college or university leading to the Bachelor's Degree. Study beyond the Bachelor's Degree is known as "graduate" school education.
In conclusion, the American education system is humanization. The grade is not as important as it in Chinese education system. It lays particular emphasis on the ability of studying which is the key to the educational life.
Academic Values in different education systems
Different culture means different culture values. Nowadays, cheating has become a big issue in the world. What is the definition of cheating? Cheating is an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one's own interest, and often at the expense of others. (8) Cheating implies the breaking of rules. What’s the different attitude to the cheating in different education system?
In China, cheating in the exam is a serious problem in the schools; many people think that cheating is often the only way to succeed academically in the overpopulated country. But recently, the Chinese government has taken extra measures to prevent cheating in the exam. But even many extreme measures do not stop students from trying. Maybe the reason why not stop cheating is because of the attitudes of students. Cheating is not necessarily seen in China as a moral issue; it is a matter of survival. Scores on an exam can mean the difference between going to a well known university in a big city and being relegated to a small college in the countryside. And going to a well known university or a small college can mean the difference between working and moving up in a large company or being stuck in mediocre low paying jobs one’s whole life. In other words, cheating could make the difference between a comfortable life and a life full of struggle. (9) Perhaps, the education policy decides this kind of cheating culture.
On the other side, in the United Stated, cheating relates to the personality. Students who cheat in the exam are always treated as a dishonesty person. Florida Tech's Academic Advising Handbook says, "Cheating and/or plagiarism are extremely serious matters. Even the suspicion of cheating or plagiarizing has jeopardized promising careers. The university has an obligation to itself, its alumni and its students to deal with such cases with unmistakably clear, forthright and fair action."(10) This is the American academic value. Because of the academic value, very few students try to cheat in the exam or in the academic area.
All in all, there is relation between goal motivation and cheating, everyone want to be successful. Remember, use the right way, and do not cheat.
Private Schools
AS opposed to public schools, the private schools are independent from the government which the facilities and funding are not provided by the government. Anyway, the private education plays an important role in the education system.
China has a long history of private education. In early 1947, the largest cities in China had around 2000 private schools, and it is said nearly all of the primary school and secondary school were in those cities. What’s more, around half of higher education institutions in China were private. But the status of private school in China has changed a lot. Private schools began to disappear after 1949. And the private education reemerged in early 1980s due to the economic reform program. Since then, private education has grown quickly. According to one estimate, the number of private higher education institutions grew from 800 to 1,000 between 1995 and 1996 alone. The private higher education sector is not uniform. There are three types of private tertiary institution, which differ on the basis of their ability to confer degrees and diplomas:
• Type I institutions that can grant their own degrees or diplomas. There are only 37 of these, representing around 3% of all private tertiary institutions in China;
• Type II institutions that can grant joint diplomas. There are 157 of these, representing around 12% of all private tertiary institutions in China;
• Type III institutions that prepare students for self-study national examinations. There are 1,080 of these, representing 85% of private tertiary institutions. (3)
Nowadays, the private education has become one of the important education styles in China’s education system.
In the United States, the private education means the schools are independent with the federal government, state or local government. The funding for private schools is mainly from student tuition, scholarship funds and loans from the religious institution and organizations. The private education in the United States has a long history. Private schools date back to the schools opened by Catholic missionaries in Florida and Louisiana in the sixteenth century, which predated the beginning of formal education in Massachusetts. These Catholic schools were the offspring of missionary zeal. The distinction between public and private, of such importance during the second half of the nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century, was not an issue in colonial North America. Some schools were free, some were supported by a combination of financial sources, and some relied solely on tuition. In some places denominational schools were, in effect, public schools, operating under civil and religious supervision, with the goals of inculcating the essentials of faith and knowledge and making good citizens of the church and commonwealth. (4) Nowadays, there are many excellent private schools in the United States, such as Princeton University and Harvard University. These universities have trained a lot of qualified person, these people made the huge contribution to the world.
In conclusion, although the private education is not popular as public and its cost more expensive than public school, the private school plays an irreplaceable role in the education system.
Financial Aid
Economics and education have the closest relationship. Education turned out many educated people to build our world, make the economics grow faster, and on the other side, a good economic environment can provide funds to the education. This is just like a chain. However, Education costs a lot of money every year, where and how does the school get the funds?
In United States, most of the funding for K-12 schools is from the federal government of United States. And some of the funding is from the State government. Every year, the federal government and State government provides funds to the public school. At the college and university level student loan funding is split in half and half. One half is managed by the Department of Education. The other half is managed by commercial entities such as banks, credit unions. Money for public education was linked to specific outcomes as the public demanded that educators be more accountable. This continues to be true, especially at state and local levels of government, where spending on education is frequently a large percentage of the state, country, or city budget. In addition, constrains on public school funding also occur when locally elected officials are not favorably inclined toward public education. (5) The federal government gives schools enough funding so that schools could do their best in their academic area. This is one of the reason leads American education system to the success.
In China, the funding is mainly from the government. With the establishment and development of socialistic market economy system, Chinese higher education systems are paying more attention to raise funds from different sources. Even though the Chinese government appropriation is still responsible most for higher education funding, it is still too less compare to the funding in the United States. Meantime, the private education funds grow greatly in recent years. The results from a further analysis show that tuition policy of two track merging into one track, which implemented in 1997, mitigated the financial crisis of higher education, and made the basic frame work of multiple financial source come into being. (6) As the Chinese economic developing, the funding for education will increase a lot in the future. The academic level in Chinese education system will be improved.
In China, the funding is mainly from the government. With the establishment and development of socialistic market economy system, Chinese higher education systems are paying more attention to raise funds from different sources. Even though the Chinese government appropriation is still responsible most for higher education funding, it is still too less compare to the funding in the United States. Meantime, the private education funds grow greatly in recent years. The results from a further analysis show that tuition policy of two track merging into one track, which implemented in 1997, mitigated the financial crisis of higher education, and made the basic frame work of multiple financial source come into being. (6) As the Chinese economic developing, the funding for education will increase a lot in the future. The academic level in Chinese education system will be improved.
Education globalization
When people talk about the globalization, most of them focus on economic exchange and the loss of manufacturing jobs overseas. In recent twenty, the globalization has more definitions. Given the increasing economic globalization and restructuring in the world political and economic systems and the requirements for knowledge and information within that system, educational needs at all levels, especially at the tertiary level, have changed. These educational requirements for the workforce of the future are extremely important. (7) For this reason, the education communication among the countries are becoming frequently.
The United States is the richest and powerful country in the world, and China developed really fast in the last thirty years. The communication between these two education systems has ever stopped. During 20th century thousands of Chinese students have traveled abroad, particularly to Europe and America seeking an education. During this period, the flow the number of foreign scholars and students interested in visiting China. The international educational experiments of universities such as Yale and Harvard with their extensions in Canton and Peking are among the notable exceptions. Between 1850 and 1950, the Unites States in particular has attracted Chinese foreign student. (11) The communication promotes these two education systems, on the other hand, the education help the economic grow faster.
In general, the education globalization can promote the development of the world. It helps people get more knowledge and people can share more information in different culture.
Conclusion
As a whole, the American education style is quite different from that in China, but there is a common ground, both of the education systems can bring up many qualified people. No matter what the language is and which kind of culture they have, these two education system are excellent.
Reference:
1. Liuzhou, Liuzhou overseas living in China, The education system, Dec 13th 2006.web, 30th Nov, 2010 < http://www.liuzhou.co.uk/china/educationinfo.htm>.
2. USA education. Us, USA education system- An overview, web, 30th Nov,2010< http://www.usaeducation.us/EduSystem/>.
3. Norman LaRocque and Dr Veronica Jacobsen, Private higher education in China: not a new concept- but a tough business, World higher education reporter, 24 Sep, 2001. Print.
4. “Private schooling- What is a private school?, History of private schools in the United States” , education stateuniversity.com. Web, 2nd, Dec, 2010.
5. Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities: Children in American Schools (New York: Crown, 1991). William Cooley and Debra Pomponio, “The Financial Equity Debate,” Pennsylvania Educational Policy Studies Number 15 (Springfield, Va: ERIC, 1993). ERIC No. ED 355665.
6. Weifang Min, Xiaohao Ding and Fengqiao Yan, Economic and Education Research, Sep, 2004. Web, 2nd Dec, 2010. < http://www.docin.com/p-28232517.html >.
7. Derrick L. Cogbum, “Globalization, Knowledge, Education and Training”, Web, Dec 6, 2010. <http://www.unesco.org/webworld/infoethics_2/eng/papers/paper_23.htm >.
8. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved.
9. Robert Vance, “Cheating in China- it’s Epidemic”, The China teaching web, March 22nd, 2008. Web, Dec 5, 2010.< http://www.teachabroadchina.com/cheating-in-china-its-an-epidemic/ > .
10. Florida Institute of Technology, Academic Support Center, Academic Advising Handbook, August 1999, 14.”
11. Stewart E. Fraser, “China’s international, culture, and educational relations: with selected bibliography”, Aspects of Chinese Education, C.T. Hu. Teachers college press by arrangement with Comparative Education Review. 1969. 60-61. Print.
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