Just when we think that our tests are high stake Yong Zhao shares another insight into the Chinese education system. In this article we learn about the practice of qiajian which means skim the top in English. It is a common practice in China where incentives are given to high scoring students and their families to enroll in a particular school. Incentives can include free schooling, signing bonuses, free apartments for parents, and jobs for parents.
What is interesting is that qiajian starts in the transition from elementary school to middle school and continues through the transition from high school to college. It certainly makes the one test used to identify the winners something worth studying for. Zhao, however, shares his concern for the negative impact of this system on China and the limitation of the test that usually only includes sections on Math, Chinese, and English. The system reinforces the importance of tests just as the government is attempting to move away from them to promote creativity and innovation, but with little success.
Though we don’t have the same incentive system in place, our growing reliance on a single test to determine success creates similar stress for students and their families. Zhao also raises an interesting question – what if charters started to skim the top.
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