Steeped in a history and tradition that put a heavy emphasis on academic excellence and a conviction that an education can change one's fate, modern China is now grappling with the challenges of creating employment for its millions of university graduates. An increasingly tight job market is making many rethink the relevance of pursuing a college education at any cost.
 
In January, China Newsweek conducted a study into education and what it actually means to people these days. The team spoke with people from diverse social and economic backgrounds from poverty-stricken mountainous areas in southwest China's Sichuan Province, affluent Yuhu Town in east China's Zhejiang Province, Beijing and Shanghai. Their findings revealed that those from villages and small towns are somewhat more open to the idea of education not being their only shot at success, while in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, people put education above all else.

Distinguishing dreams from reality

Located 75 kilometers southwest of Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan Province, Qionglai is surrounded by mountains. It is comparatively backward in terms of its economy, with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of just 9,033 yuan (US$1,161) in 2005, putting it third from the bottom among 19 districts and counties in Chengdu.
 
Tian Wei, a technician at a wine factory, graduated from Southwest University of Science and Technology last year. He is in charge of checking packaging and updating delivery records. Having majored in computer science, he had dreams of securing a stable job with a monthly salary of about 3,000 yuan. However, still serving out his probation, he now earns only 800 yuan.
 
For many rural children, a university education was previously seen as a means to better themselves, and not limit their options to becoming farmers like their parents or grandparents.

However, the increasing number of rural students passing the national college entrance examinations and entering university is putting a financial strain on families. In addition, with more graduates competing for a finite number of jobs in the cities, a university degree no longer guarantees employment.
 
In Qionglai, it costs about 4,000 yuan a year to put a student through high school. The figure goes up to 10,000 yuan a year for university students. According to The Green Paper of the Rural Economy in 2006, a farmer's average net yearly income was only 3,255 yuan in 2005.
 
"Now, people are wondering if it would actually make more sense to forgo a university education for their children altogether," said Hu Mingqing, Tian Wei's middle school teacher. To his recollection, 40 percent of graduates who returned to their homes after unsuccessful job-hunts in the cities regret having gone to university.
 
Another teacher named Zhang Shirong added: "More parents are willing to allow their children to quit school to find work instead."

Statistics provided by Qionglai City Education Bureau show that high school dropout rates are increasing every year, reaching 20.6 percent this year.
 
The overseas route to success

Yuhu Town in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, is made up of a large number of overseas Chinese and their relatives. Of the total population of 20,000, the number of overseas Chinese is almost twice that of those who never left. It was in 1992 that families with overseas connections started sending for their children to join them. Most leave midway through high school, and those who remain are typically children from outside of Yuhu or those with no family residing abroad.

For the people of Yuhu, they've discarded the conventional thinking of achieving academic excellence to secure employment in China, choosing instead to slog it out in foreign lands.
 
In 2005, the town's foreign exchange reserves reached 700 million yuan, accounting for half of Wencheng County's. Yuhu is the only town attached to Wencheng County, which has an agricultural bank that happens to be one of the top 10 best-performing branches in the province.
 
Much of Yuhu's fortune is made in Europe, so much so that children tend to think in euros. Zhou Yusheng, a teacher, was asked by his students how much he earned as a teacher. He replied: "About 1,500 yuan."
 
The students cried out in astonishment: "Only 150 euros? When we go abroad, if each of us send you one euro, you could make over 500 to 600 euros!"

Twenty years ago, Yuhu Town was no different from any other Chinese village. Farming was the mainstay and a good education was the only way out of a life of hard labor.

Although joining the civil service was one way of securing a stable income, positions were hard to come by, even with good academic results. "Everyone has a calculator in his mind in Yuhu Town," said Zhou Feng, a Yuhu resident.
 
"Taking the education route to the big cities, that's a long and dark way; you can't see your destination. You face many practical problems like tuition, living expenses, and caring for elderly parents. But in Yuhu, these overseas Chinese have given their offspring a bright and attainable future."
 
Education a priority in big cities

In many of China's bigger cities, academic excellence and that all-important university degree is still a top priority, especially for parents who want to see their children succeed in life.

To cater to increasing high school enrollment rates, and in a bid to reduce the pressure on students to perform and to ensure a more even distribution of students, the Beijing Education Committee announced in 2006 that it would use an automated system to place children in schools based on their residential addresses. However, this is not stopping high-achiever parents from doing all they can to place their children in the elite schools.
 
In fact, competition for places in the better middle schools is so keen that good grades are no longer enough. Students have to pass entrance tests, and parents will put their children through extra lessons to prepare for these tests.

The situation in Shanghai is no different. Here, the contest starts from as early as kindergarten. Children are signed up for all manner of enrichment and remedial courses; anything to get a head-start.

A study conducted by China Youth Daily in 2005 revealed that Shanghai families with children under the age of 18 spent an average of one quarter of the family's total income on education. Further, this does not include any extra expenses that might be incurred trying to get a child into a preferred school through the "back door".
 
Dang Guoying, a researcher from the Rural Development Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, thinks that the reason why parents, especially parents in the big cities, are willing to spend large amounts of money on their children's education stems from a sense of frustration or non-achievement on their part.

However, the employment options are none too promising, not with local governments trying to accommodate as many as 4.13 million graduates. There just aren't enough jobs to go around. In addition, the situation is graver for urban residents than it is for their rural counterparts. According to Professor Qian Minhui from the Education & Social Science Institute at Peking University, urbanites limit their employment choices still further because, unlike their rural comrades, they are generally unwilling to take on lower-paying jobs that might not require a university degree.
 
(China.org.cn by Wang Qian, February 1, 2007)