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Primary and middle school students forced by parents to compete in various academic contests

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2016-12-13 09:54Global Times Editor: Li Yan ECNS App Download

"Grades 2, 4 and 6 from 8 am to 11:40 am; grades 1, 3 and 5 from 1 pm to 4:40 pm," rolled out the instruction for participants of the Chunlei Cup, a nationwide and long-established competition facing grades 1 through 6 students in China. With the growing popularity of various academic contests like the Chunlei Cup, a new front in the battle for school enrollment is emerging, thepaper.cn reported. Attending contest after contest has become a weekend norm for Chinese primary and middle school students, as well as kindergarten toddlers, despite the Ministry of Education's repeated order and directive to "unhook" contests from school enrollments.

Every end of the year is a carnival of contests in China. The Chunlei Cup, the Xiaojiling Cup and the 3E English Contest, which bombard students with questions, equations and formulas, are just a few of the many that children are entered into by their parents.

Grades 5 and 9 students anxiously await their results, which may or may not give them a scholastic advantage to secure a place at local key middle schools and high schools. Even toddlers are not exempted, competing in storytelling and modeling contests.

In recent years, such competitions have been cataloged into what parents and teachers now refer to as The Four Contests.

It refers to the four mathematical Olympiad contests highly valued by Shanghai's key middle schools during the enrollment process.

Some schools compare contest certificates provided by students, which are then compiled into a list which is circulated in local parenting circles.

According to an online article about The Four Contests, only around 30 percent of all participants make the finals. Among finalists, a mere 20 percent will win an award.

Given that students can take part in the contests repeatedly, around 900 to 1,000 students will achieve at least third prize before graduating from primary school.

This will give this small cluster of students a slight advantage over the growing flow of primary school graduates when applying to key middle schools, said the article.

But on the other side of The Four Contests, municipal education departments are lashing out against such competitions.

One month ago, a new regulation was passed by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission that bans schools from enrolling students based only on award certificates during the nine-year compulsory education.

Parents, however, don't seem pleased about this new regulation even though it was designed on their behalf and meant to lessen China's competitive fervor.

"I know that the Ministry of Education opposes students competing in after-school contests. But these contests are like stinky tofu, which smells good and tastes even better," said a parent surnamed Li who enrolled her Grade 3 daughter for The Four Contests.

At least one-third of children in Shanghai participate in such contests on weekends. According to the headmaster of an experimental primary school in Shanghai, one-third is in fact a conservative estimation.

"Opposition doesn't work. Parents simply worship contests and certificates," the headmaster noted.

According to research, 68 percent of Chinese students have attended training for at least one Olympiad math competition.

As to the reasons, 57 percent of parents said they want their kids to enter a key school while 48 percent said they want to develop their children's logical thinking. Only 4 percent said it was the kid's own choice.

Other parents expressed that they see contests as a mirror of their kid's school performance. One local mother surnamed Chen enrolled her son for the Yatai Cup on December 3, the Zhonghuan Cup on December 17, the Xiaojiling Cup on December 25 and the Zoumei Cup on January 8.

Chen said that because of the new grading system in primary schools, which now ranks students based on several levels instead of giving marks, it is harder for parents to keep track of how well their child is doing in school and if they made the right choice in school enrollment.

"External contests are a reference which tells parents whether our students are doing well at school," Chen said. "On the other hand it also helps parents position their child objectively."

On the one side is the solemn directive of the education department and the promise of schools. On the other side is the raging fire that continues to fuel the popularity of these contests.

Former director of the teaching and research office at the Shanghai Education Commission, Wang Juexuan, said contests are not suitable for every child. As such, parents need to adjust themselves from the mind-set that contests are a "passport" to key schools.

Mathematician Zhang Jingzhong, a fellow member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also said in an interview that mathematical contests should only be an activity for the small number of teenaged math lovers. He therefore opposes parents who force their young child to learn mathematics or train for Olympiads.

"Statistics show that only 20 percent of primary and middle school students are excellent at math and only 5 percent are suitable for Olympiads. A forced learning process will only make a child's childhood painful," Zhang said.

  

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