In China, since 1977 the college entrance exam has been the only way for universities to select students. Although it is just a 3-day exam once every year, it significantly affects tens of millions of people's lives. I'm not exaggerating at all. 10.2 million students took college entrance exams in 2009. When somebody prepares for it, that will be the only thing her whole family care about for about a year. I believe most of them are single-child, which make the number up to about 30 million. This single-exam policy has been criticized for many years, however, nobody could come up with better solutions.
One of the big changes is to give universities the power to select students, instead of depending on nation's Ministry of Education to do everything for everyone. This is good, because universities can use whatever they think is the best way to pick high school graduates. A few days ago, Peking University, one of the best universities in China, proposed a brave and new tactic. It chose 39 high school principals and let each of them recommend 1-5 students. If these students can pass an additional interview, they will have 30 "free" scores in the college entrance exam next year. This is a new attempt to change the current situation, but the question is - does it really work? Let's start with something I don't like about this plan.
First, one of the key points of this new policy is that the names of these 39 high school principals are public. I don't know how you feel about this, but I feel it is kinda of funny. I'm not sure what it infers. Does it mean that if referees' names are not public, they will not be trusted?
Second, it is not fair to pick certain high schools to recommend students. Does Peking University want to pick students, or another affiliated high school? On the other hand, this is probably a perfect commercial for those 39 high schools. It delivers this message: these 39 high schools are the best high schools in China, go there so you will have chance to be recommended to Peking University.
Third, I think teachers know students better than principals, so they should recommend students. Back to when I was in high school, I only talked to the principal in my high school once or twice. Besides teachers and principals, people outside of schools should also be able to recommend students.
Although I don't agree with all of above, I do understand why Peking University did it. They all boil down to one problem - people do not trust each other. If everybody is trustable, Peking University can simply take any recommendations into account. Unfortunately, they can only trust 39 people after letting everybody know their names. What they want to do is to make accountability very clear. If you have doubts on any of the recommended students, go ask those principals. This also enforces the supervise on referees, so they will not do bad things, such as taking bribes or recommending their friends or relatives.
So, it looks like a good plan, doesn't it? Unfortunately, I don't think it will work in reality. The execution of this new policy will turn to be formalism. Most of those high school principals will probably just recommend students who have best scores in exams - the traditional, but controversial, way to define best students. That is obviously the safest way to do it. Everybody is watching, they don't want to be questioned for doing something "new", or I would say "better". For example, this high school in Chongqing recommended three students who have the best scores in the recent four exams. These students can probably go to Peking University even without this so-called recommendation. There is nothing wrong with doing this, but if all of other 38 high schools do the same, this new policy does not make any sense, because its original goal is to give opportunities to students who are not usually considered as the best - those who do not have the best scores in exams. I'm very curious what other high schools will do next.
Just like many other problems related to education, how to pick students to colleges is a very hard problem. Having admission hinge on a single exam is definitely a bad idea, but it is probably the best way for now, given the realities in China. Things take time to change. If Peking University's new policy can more or less make a step further on the way, it is worth the effort.
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