Last summer, the notice of admission from a university brought
nothing more than fleeting joy to Gansu
Province youngster Peng Jinbao. His family of five could only
manage to put together 4,000 yuan (US$490), barely enough for the
first-year's tuition. Added to this the prospective living and
miscellaneous costs of 6,000 yuan (US$740) a year, Peng only had
one option: give up.
However, he was not prepared to give up on his dream of campus
life that easily. He opted to remain at high school for one more
year and take the college entrance exam again, in the hope that the
extra year would give his family time to save more money. It didn't
work. When he applied again this summer, with the top score in his
county, all his family could pool was 2,000 yuan (US$247).
Luckily, he should be able to make it this time. Chen Jianjun,
secretary of the county Party committee, has reportedly promised
that the local government will act as a guarantor for Peng to get a
bank loan for college.
While cheering for Chen's conscientious act, should we feel
happy for Peng now, or lament the one unnecessary year he has spent
in high school? How many such Party secretaries do we need in order
to get our poor youngsters into college?
Reality is cruel, and the truth is that being too poor to go to
college is torturing tens of thousands of Chinese families every
year. I had a reality check recently when I went to a village in
the more prosperous south of China. The experience of one family I
met there left me dumbfounded.
The two parents were breaking their backs, waking at 3 o'clock
in the morning every day, yet were still far from being financially
capable of supporting their three children currently in college.
It's no secret they have been turning to loan sharks for black
money. I can never forget the pervasive sadness told through the
father's eyes and fidgeting hands.
In the space of only a decade, China has claimed the unsavoury
title of having the most expensive higher learning institutes in
the world, relative to per capita GDP, according to a calculation
based on surveys released earlier this year. Eleven years ago I was
paying 600 yuan (US$74) for my annual college tuition and now it
has skyrocketed to over 5,000 yuan (US$620). However, many people's
incomes have not risen so impressively.
This has many unwanted impacts. On the students' part, many try
whatever they can to take as much of the burden off their families
as possible. Given that State-sponsored loans are becoming more and
more difficult to come by, there is heated competition to land
normal part-time jobs. Other discoveries are disheartening: One boy
was recently caught hawking pornographic books. If students are
forced to spend their time doing this, how can they concentrate on
what they are meant to be doing studying?
The credibility of the higher learning system will take a hit if
such deplorable acts continue. When the system itself falls into
this mercenary trap, it's hard to envisage that it will be capable
of propagating the correct attitudes and senses towards money and
the values of life.
Making higher learning reasonably affordable should once again
become one of the top priorities of the government.
A 1993 national guideline vowed to invest 4 per cent of the
national GDP into education by the year 2000. Today the rate stands
at 3.28 per cent. Here one percentage point can make a huge
difference. According to one calculation, if only one-third of the
targeted increase of one percentage point is channelled into higher
learning, it will mean over 30 billion yuan (US$3.7 billion) a year
in extra funds, which would be enough to help reduce tuition and
fee levels.
Unfortunately this reasoning remains only on paper. It is a big
pity that huge funds are poured into infrastructure construction or
taken up by bloated administrative structures. From a long-term and
sustainable prospective, what else is more valuable than talented
and well-educated people?
Why a 10-year old national guideline has failed to come into
reality is another tough question that must be tackled. Outcries
about exorbitant education costs have been heard for years, but the
issue hasn't prompted sufficient momentum to force a change. Are we
missing the right channel for the people to express what they are
thinking? Or is it simply clogged? No matter what, there is no
doubt that the government should be held accountable for this
situation.
For now, Peng Jinbao's younger sister is starting her first year
of high school. College is just two years ahead, another steep
mountain looming for his family to climb. Though it is a shame that
underprivileged students can only go to college thanks to the
sporadic help of some government officials, and not through a
reliable mechanism, I'd like to pray that people keep extending a
helping hand to these poor youngsters.
For me, the more that make it to college, the better. On the
policy side, it will take time, but the solution is simple: Lower
tuitions across the board, and grant free entrance to poor students
with brilliant minds like Peng Jinbao.
(China Daily August 9, 2005)