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In Depth: How a High-Performing Rural School Left Rural Kids Behind

2019年11月11日 17:27 来源于 财新网
Dancheng No. 1 High School topped the nation last year for the number of students to Peking and Tsinghua University — but a Caixin investigation raises questions about who it is really helping
Dancheng No. 1 High School in Zhoukou, Henan province, on July 10. Photo: IC Photo

Fifteen-year-old Yang Jia couldn’t contain his anxiety as he glanced out the window of the long-distance bus. He was about to leave his home city of Zhengzhou, the bustling capital of China’s central Henan province, for a poor county high school nearly 250 kilometers (155 miles) away. One million students in Henan took the college entrance exam, or “gaokao,” in 2019. Less than one-tenth passed. Only 95,000 were admitted to university. The exam is known internationally for its intensity, and the fierce competition has only grown in recent years. Now, Yang’s parents are among many placing their bets on Dancheng No. 1 High School, a famously strict and high-performing institution in a poverty-stricken, rural county at the juncture of Henan and Anhui provinces. Since 2012, Dancheng No. 1 High School has seen more than 20 students each year admitted to Tsinghua and Peking universities. In 2016 and 2019 the school topped the nation for the number of students admitted to the two top institutions — with 44 and 43 students respectively. Lin Xiaoying, an associate professor at Peking University’s School of Education, is well aware of the brain drain effect of urban education, which draws in talented students from the countryside to attend urban schools. So the idea of kids going from the city to attend a county school seemed counterintuitive to her at first. A decade ago Dancheng county’s education system was the worst in all of Zhoukou city. Today, parents from all over China fight to get their students in. How has a rural county’s high school managed to achieve such success? And should it really be a model for other rural county schools? While things may look good on paper, the picture on the ground is different: one of a school that takes advantage of government schemes and is leaving poor students behind.

版面编辑:喻竹杨洋

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