Can 500,000 international high school students enter the "inner circle" of education
Before sending his child to an international high school, Beijing parent Liu Jing "struggled for two months."
According to the original assumption, children will study abroad after finishing international high school.
However, the sudden epidemic became the "biggest uncertainty."
Liu Jing has been hesitant to choose an international high school.
Before the high school entrance examination, the child said that he wanted to go to a regular high school or a domestic college, but he didn't want to go abroad.
The epidemic has caused changes to the study abroad program.
Faced with some students whose plans to study abroad were blocked, on September 16, the Ministry of Education decided to temporarily allow some cooperative education institutions and projects to expand enrollment. Tsinghua University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and other well-known universities include 90 projects.
Seeing this news, Liu Jing "heaved a sigh of relief."
Although, the policies from the country made Liu Jing less pressure.
But she always needs to face these "how to do it" problems: the curriculum is not compatible with ordinary domestic high schools, most people cannot register for domestic high school status, it is difficult to transfer back to general high school, and cannot take the college entrance examination.
Is it to shelve the study abroad plan to interrupt school, or bite the bullet and continue to go down?
Behind each decision is not only a consideration of the two educational models, but also many practical problems faced by international high school students.
Embarking on this road requires greater courage to deal with "uncertainty"
"There is no longer a fixed class concept, and a'working class system' is implemented." "There is no paper textbook." Sitting in front of the reporter, Guo Tianli described his study and life in an international school.
This is the International Department of an earlier public school in Beijing, and it is quite well-known.
Studying in the International Department, Guo Tianli, who was originally obsessed with math competitions, discovered that the literature class was even more interesting than mathematics. “The only regret is that the foreign teachers in the English drama class have not yet returned to China.” This is just one of the many inconveniences caused by the epidemic. , And the greater impact will be related to the smooth progress of Guo Tianli’s study abroad plan.
This year, many international high school or public school graduates of the International Department were unable to study locally after receiving admission notices from foreign universities and were forced to take online classes at home.
“Those who choose international high schools need to answer the question most: Why study abroad?” Ma Zhi, a manager of an international school in Ningbo, Zhejiang, thinks, “Some students just want to increase their knowledge, some just to avoid the college entrance examination and find alternative solutions. The epidemic may have a greater impact on the latter. After considering various factors such as cost, safety, and flexibility, some parents who were originally interested in international high schools finally chose Pu Gao."
However, Liu Jing belongs to the former.
She told reporters that there are still two years before her child graduates from international high school.
She firmly believes that it shouldn't be a problem to study abroad smoothly.
The reporter found that although there are different attitudes towards international high schools, it is indisputable that once you decide to embark on this path, you will need more courage than ever to deal with "uncertainty."
In the first half of the year, the TOEFL and SAT exams were cancelled one after another.
Although the child was just in the first year of high school, Liu Jing set about applying for the TOEFL test for him in order to get his scores. But as soon as she entered the application system, she found that the test centers in Beijing and Shanghai were full, and she had to "leave the nearest and seek further" and register for the Xuzhou test center in December , "There is also a friend's child who applied for the Mongolian exam center in order to take the exam."
International high school enrollment is cold, some schools are out of enrollment
According to the "Development Status of High School International Programs (2019)" issued by an international education research and development and service organization, as of the end of 2019, there were nearly 1,000 public schools in China (international classes), international private high schools and other schools. The total number of school students is about 500,000.
International high schools have always been regarded by Chinese parents as another "runway", requiring continuous financial investment from families.
International high schools in Beijing, Shanghai and other places charge 100,000 to 200,000 yuan per year, and in second- and third-tier cities basically do not exceed 100,000 yuan.
According to the report, there are more than 100 schools in Beijing and Shanghai implementing high school international programs, and the number of new students accounts for about 8% to 10% of the local high school enrollment.
What is the situation of international high schools when the epidemic hits?
The reporter's investigation found that the enrollment of international classes in many public schools and private schools across the country was cold this year.
Some schools are not fully enrolled, and the remaining vacancies for a batch of admissions have almost doubled compared with last year.
In early August, Nanjing Educational Admissions and Examination Institute released general high school re-enrollment information. Many international classes and private high schools had 181 enrollment vacancies, and some projects were out of order.
In addition, compared with 2019, the admission scores and rankings of some schools have dropped significantly.
The admission score of NFLS Cambridge International Class dropped by 8 points, and the admission ranking dropped by 3052.
Almost at the same time, several high school international classes including Zhengzhou Foreign Language School, Zhengzhou No.
In fact, the cold in international high school enrollment is not only due to the impact of the epidemic, but also a fact that cannot be ignored: before the outbreak of the epidemic, studying abroad has grown weak.
According to the "2019 U.S. Open Door Report" issued by the American Association for International Education, in the 2018-2019 academic year, the number of Chinese students studying in the United States is still the first, exceeding 370,000.
However, it only increased by 6000 people over the previous year, which was the least year in the past 10 years. It was only 1/7 of the peak, which was a continuous decline for 6 years.
Studying in the United States has always been regarded as the vane of the study abroad market and the first choice for international high school students.
Zeng Li serves as a high school teaching supervisor on the Shandong campus of an international school.
This international school has branches in many places in China.
"Affected by the epidemic, students' willingness to go abroad has indeed decreased." She said.
Nevertheless, these international high school students still did not "brake" to stop their studies, and began to choose "turn".
Zeng Li showed reporters a survey of students on campus: As a destination for studying abroad, the attractiveness of the United States has dropped by 6.48%.
Many students and parents have changed their study destination from the United States to the United Kingdom and other European countries.
According to the survey, in some international schools in Ningbo, many parents made the same choice.
Courses are not compatible, it is difficult to switch back to normal
The epidemic came suddenly, but the troubles of international high school students have persisted for a long time.
Before graduating smoothly, if I leave an international high school for some reason, can I still return to the domestic general high school?
The vast majority of international high school students do not have such options.
The reason is that they have no domestic high school membership.
"Students who pass the high school entrance examination and enter the Sino-foreign cooperatively-run high school program have domestic high school status because these programs are filed in the education department." Ma Zhi said frankly, "but this situation involves very few students."
"From a policy point of view, high school diplomas issued by international schools are recognized domestically, and international high school students can take the college entrance examination." Hu Xiangdong, director of the Survey and Evaluation Center of Central China Normal University, believes that even if there is no domestic high school status, local education administrative departments can also consider " Starting from the approach of “equal academic ability in high school”, the academic ability level of these high school students is confirmed by program and their qualifications for college entrance examination are confirmed.
"The real difficulty is that the content of these students may be different from those of domestic high schools." Hu Xiangdong analyzed that in the existing college entrance examination system, international high school students have no advantage, and their English proficiency may be slightly higher, but this advantage is in the college entrance examination. The manifestation is not obvious.
The reporter's investigation found that: At present, the courses of various international schools in China are mainly divided into three categories, namely IB diploma, AP and A-Level courses-the former is a preparatory course developed by the International Baccalaureate Organization, and the latter two are the United States and the United Kingdom. Course.
"The difference between international courses and domestic high school education is mainly reflected in the diverse requirements of international courses. Grades are only one of the links. Other assessment indicators such as volunteer service, paperwork, and extracurricular activities have specific requirements for students." The school adopts the A-Level curriculum system.
In Ma Zhi's view, "under the epidemic, international high school students are hindered from studying abroad, referring to A-Level results and entering a domestic Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run university should be a way out."
Digest and absorb international high school students by classification, and do a good job in the education "inner loop"
Who will accept international high school students who are unwilling to go abroad under the influence of the epidemic or who are facing difficulties on the road to studying abroad?
From September 9th, the University of Nottingham Ningbo, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and other Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run universities have successively released enrollment information for increasing admissions, opening the door to Chinese students who hold admission notices from outstanding foreign universities. Students can directly get overseas after graduation. University degree certificate.
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University’s enrollment guidelines stated that the enrollment was due to obstacles in the path of Chinese students studying abroad. In order to solve the practical difficulties and needs of this group, it was set “under the guidance and arrangement of relevant departments”.
According to the person in charge of the International Department of the Ministry of Education (Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs Office), the expansion of cooperative school enrollment will not be included in the national unified enrollment plan, will not occupy the original enrollment indicators of colleges and universities, and will not affect other types of college enrollment.
The enrollment work follows the principles of two-way selection, merit-based admission, and quality assurance.
In fact, the University of Nottingham Ningbo has been required to pass the college entrance examination to enter the University of Nottingham Ningbo since its establishment in 2004 until now.
Shen Weiqi, Vice President of the University of Nottingham Ningbo, responded to the reporter: "I hope to increase the admission of some international high school students through the comprehensive evaluation system, digest and absorb high-quality students, so as to cultivate diversified talents."
"At present, to open up the'broken road' of international high schools, we need to do a good job in the'inner loop' of education." Chen Zhiwen, executive director of the China Education International Exchange Association and vice chairman of the Overseas Study Branch, suggested, "At present, we need to adjust related policies. Appropriately liberalize this type of school-running model and encourage more excellent foreign universities to run schools in China. While respecting the model of running such universities, it also respects their application review and enrollment model to facilitate the docking with domestic international schools. Necessary adjustments need to be made in the certification of academic qualifications."
Chen Zhiwen reminded that while encouraging the establishment of Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run colleges and universities with such an independent legal person model to form an "inner circle" of domestic and international education, their admission systems must be consistent.
"For example, they are all application review systems, but it is not advisable to implement part of the application review system and part of the college entrance examination score." This time, many universities have increased their admissions to encourage them to implement a separate application review system and only issue foreign diplomas.
Chen Zhiwen said that on the basis of not affecting the fairness of the college entrance examination, this measure has given some students who have already embarked on the path of international high school education a chance to turn back.
(At the request of the interviewee, part of this article uses a pseudonym)
(Our reporter Chen Peng)