The Increase In Enrollment and The Rise of Tuition Fees
Uploaded by realturtle on Aug 28, 2002
Not long ago, the entrance exam to college was compared to a single plank-bridge, which a largh numbers of soldiers were squeezing through, and the month in which the exam is held is called the " Black July".
Recently, the United Nations made a survey on school entry percentage in many countries, and here is the result. The percentage of the elementary school entry is 99% in both America and China, but the percentage of students entering college in China falls to 9%, while in America it's 80%, and the average rate of the developing countries is 9.6%. According to these figures, we can come to the conclusion that the Chinese students have surprisingly less chance than American students to enter college.
So, the students, the parents and the society are calling for an increase in college enrollment. To answer their demand, the government has promised to increase the enrollment. There'll be 75% of students who could enter college by the year 2010. As a result, an education for the few top students will be turned to the education for the majority, and hopefully, the number of the depressed parents and the cases of the students who aere driven mad or commit suicide after the exam will decrease. This is really a piece of good news for millions of dillgent Chinese students and their anxious parents.
However, every coin has two sides, so is the increase in enrollment. Besides its advantages, it also has some negative effects on several aspects. One is that it adds to the pressure for a graduate to hunt for a job since a bachelor's or a master's degree is not as valuable as it was some years ago. Another one is the shortage of dormitories, classrooms and teachers. For instance, in my university, six students share a small room. So no matter how careful you are, you can't avoid knocking down or bumping into something when you walk in the room. But "the merits outweigh the defects", since the problem can be solved by other means.
A solution to the latter problem is the rise of tuition fees. With the money, more dormitories and classrooms will be built and more teachers can be employed. However, this solution brings another problem, that is, there are so many students who can't afford the increased tuition fees. They may come from the rural area or the laid-off worker families, and they may...