1.Overview of the Education System in Mainland China
In China,it is convenient to divide education in China into four categories:primary education,secondary education,higher education,and adult education.China has a Compulsory Education Law.
The Compulsory Education Law
The Compulsory Education Law calls for each child to have nine years of formal education.To meet this requirement,a child will attend either five years of elementary education followed by three years of junior middle school.Today in China,the first system,-4钬?is virtually nonexistent; the second system,-3钬?is far more common.
2.Categories with the Education System
1) Primary Education
Primary education includes preschool and elementary education.Preschool,or kindergarten,can last up to three years,with children entering as early as age three,until age six,when they typically enter elementary school.The academic year is divided into two semesters.
2) Secondary Education
Secondary education is divided into academic secondary education and specialized/vocational/technical secondary education.
Academic secondary education is delivered by academic lower and upper middle schools.
Lower middle school graduates wishing to continue their education take a locally administered entrance exam,on the basis of which they will have the option either of continuing in an academic upper middle school or of entering a vocational secondary school.Vocational schools offer programs ranging from two to four years and train medium-level skilled workers,farmers,and managerial and technical personnel.Technical schools typically offer four-years programs to train intermediate technical personnel.钬沦chools for Skilled Workers钬 typically train junior middle school graduates for positions requiring production and operation skills.The length of training is typically three year.
3) Higher Education
Higher education at the undergraduate level includes two-and three-year junior colleges(sometimes also called short-cycle colleges or zhuanke colleges ( ),four-year colleges( ),and universities ( ) offering programs in both academic and vocational subjects.Many colleges and universities also offer graduate programs leading to the master钬檚 or Ph.D.degree.
Chinese higher education at the undergraduate level is divided into and programs.Zhuanke programs are offered not only at short-cycle colleges,but frequently also at four-year colleges and universities.Benke programs are offered at four-year colleges and universities but do not always lead to the bachelor钬檚 degree.
Myriad higher education opportunities also fall under the general category of adult education.
4) Adult Education
The adult education category overlaps all three of the above categories.Adult primary education includes Workers钬 Primary Schools,Peasants钬 Primary Schools,and literacy classes.Adult secondary education includes radio/TV specialized secondary schools,specialized secondary school for cadres,specialized secondary schools for staff and workers,specialized secondary schools for peasants,in-service teacher training schools and correspondence specialized secondary schools.Adult higher education includes radio/TV universities,cadre institutes,workers钬 colleges,peasant colleges,correspondence colleges,and educational colleges.Most of the above offer both two- and three-year short-cycle (or zhuanke) curricula; only a few also offer regular undergraduate curricula.
3.Grading Scale
Grades in China may follow either a five-scale or a four-scale system,as follows:
Some transcripts-----even those in the original Chinese----use the Latin letter grades (A,B,C,D,F) rather than the Chinese equivalents above.Often,numerical grades are reported (generally on a 0-100 scale); in this case,refer either to the bottom of the transcript (especially the English translation) for the letter-grade equivalents,or use the standard scale (A:90-100,B:80-89,etc.).
Certain classes can be taken on a pass-fail basis and are reported thus: