China's Education System Reform: The History and Challenges Behind College Students' Employment Difficulties
In the reform of China's education system, 1977 is considered a crucial year. That year, China restored the 10-year-long college entrance examination system, providing countless students with the opportunity to climb up. This century of opportunity has opened the channel for class leapfrogging and brought new hope to China. However, 40 years later, unemployment after graduation is widespread among the younger generation.
In 1977, my grandfather was admitted to secondary school, and the news caused a sensation in the county. In 1992, my father was admitted to junior college, and the head teacher personally sent the admission notice. These were success stories at the time that changed the fate of the family.
However, in 2017, I was admitted to the undergraduate program, and although it was a 985 university, the family only celebrated a hot pot. The graduation of my grandfather and father brought city life and real estate to the family, but I was unemployed under the epidemic for half a year after graduation.
This contrast is frustrating for today's young people. They can't help but ask, why are they now unemployed after graduation?
To understand this issue, we need to look back at the history of China's education system reform. This is not just because of the economic downturn, but also because of a series of policies and social changes.
In 1977, Chinese society was experiencing a spring breeze of reform, and the whole country was in urgent need of a large number of professional and technical personnel. The technical secondary school policy came into being, selecting young people with excellent intelligence and excellent learning, and they became the backbone of society. Technical secondary school students can not only transfer urban hukou, but also cadre status, which has lasted for more than a decade and helped China overcome the shortage of industrial talents.
However, in the early 90s, China began to learn from the Western education system, and vocational education gradually declined. In addition, the East Asian financial turmoil and the wave of layoffs of state-owned enterprises led to a large number of people unable to find jobs in the late 90s.
In response to this problem, the government has taken two important measures: first, the iron rice bowl university insurance has been abolished, and secondary school students and college students will no longer be allocated; The second is to vigorously expand enrollment and use colleges and universities to absorb labor. However, these two reforms of the education system have led to the root cause of the problem of graduate employment difficulties.
Comparing the data for 1998 and 2023, we can see a sharp rise in the number of graduates. What really causes problems, however, is that the policy shift is too rapid, leaving not enough buffers.
China completed its industrialization process at the beginning of the 21st century, and society needs more office white-collar workers, but this change should be carried out in an orderly manner. However, due to the rapid expansion of university enrollment, technical schools have also been upgraded to universities, which has led society to form a false expectation that college graduates can be separated from manual labor as long as they go to university.
As a result of this social environment, China's education system selects almost only one way out of talent, that is, to go to university. That's why there is now an embarrassing situation where college students can't find jobs, but factories can't recruit people.
China is not short of jobs, but of jobs suitable for skilled workers. The U.S. education system cannot simply be copied from China because the two countries are different. China is still a country supported by industrial manufacturing and needs a large number of industrial skilled workers.
The State has begun to adopt secondary school streams and measures to support technical schools, but this will take time. Until the reform of the education system is completed, we must go through a period of throes.
The reform of the education system is a complex and necessary task that requires the support and understanding of the whole society. Only by finding an education model suitable for China's national conditions can we solve the problem of college students' difficulty in finding employment and create more opportunities and hopes for the younger generation.