China's Education System: Loved and Hated

Abstract

China has the largest education system in the world, and a population who values formal education highly and is ready to invest heavily in children’s schooling. As much research has shown, this reverence for education is only partly due to rational considerations of offspring’s’ work opportunities. It also has its roots in a long historical trajectory of highly esteemed Confucian education and civil service exams. Since the time of the PRC, the education system has undergone a number of radical structural reforms and adaptations of content of education. Nevertheless, methods of teaching and means of socialization have proven remarkably persistent, causing intense debates about the pros and cons of the Chinese education system. The article first provides a brief overview of the structure of the education system as it has developed during the PRC, with an emphasis on the 21. century. This is followed by three sections focusing on “Knowledge and exams”, “Socialization and discipline” and “Alternative paths” that places the Chinese current education system in the broader global web of educational institutions and ideologies. The article analyses and discusses why and with which consequence the Chinese population and its government have cultivated a love-hate relationship with their own education system, and it concludes with some suggestions for future research. © 2018 SAGE Publications