2005 China Reportage Annual Selection

Author: Fu Xipeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features:
1. Why don't students go home when they fail an exam? The pressure on students is most concentrated in the third and final years of junior high school. China implements a nine-year compulsory education policy, aiming to ensure students at least complete the third year. If they fail to enter high school, the third year marks a major turning point in their lives. Whether they can get into a "good high school" after graduating from the third year is the "high ground" that both students and parents strive for. To help students learn more during the nine-year compulsory education, China has increased the curriculum load from primary to junior high school. The pressure doesn't just come from academic tasks. In 2002, the enrollment rate for junior high school graduates in China was 58.3%, meaning 41.7% were. If a child doesn't go on to high school, which parent wouldn't worry? Since they are only 13 or 14 years old, and the third year is their first encounter with the challenges of their own lives, the pressure they face is even greater than that of senior high school students. A girl at a high school in Beijing was so distressed after her mock exam results dropped significantly that she didn't go home until nine o'clock at night. At seven o'clock, her parents went to the school and found the teachers, who said school had ended early and no students were left. When they learned about the poor mock exam results, they asked where their daughter was. The teachers and parents called her close friends, but none had seen her. The friends also grew anxious and helped call all their classmates' homes. No one had seen her. Everyone grew worried. The parents mobilized relatives and friends to search the entire city in cars, checking every internet cafe and entertainment venue. Still, she was nowhere to be found. The father decided to call the police station. At the station, his phone rang. He answered, but there was no sound. He asked, "Who is it? Do you have any news?" "Dad, it's me," his daughter's voice came through. "Are you okay?" "I'm alive." "Where did you go?" "I was chatting with classmates." "Don't lie, we've called all your classmates." "I was chatting with elementary school classmates." "Elementary school classmates?" The father was confused. "Who?" His daughter gave a name, a childhood friend she hadn't been in touch with for a long time. As he was driving home, he called his relatives and friends who were still searching across Beijing, telling them to stop looking and that she had come home. When they got home, the parents asked if she had eaten. She said yes. Where did she eat? McDonald's. Her two childhood friends were there, sipping drinks and staring at the McDonald's lights while chatting. The night was beautiful, and their hearts were full of confusion.