This week an opinion piece in the China Times pointed out how the nation is moving in that direction. One of the departments was taking part of the student inflow based on grades and extracurricular activities. The new system is called "甄試" which is like an audition, or the scouting combine in the NFL in which potential NFL players are evaluated before Draft Day. The students can apply to a school, and on a certain day they 甄試 at the school -- going there, dressed to the nines, and answer questions from the department teachers. Points are given for extracurricular activities such as foreign travel, and the ability to speak good English. Looks naturally count, in the usual hidden way. Because this is Taiwan, a network of cram schools has already sprung up to coach the kids how to 甄試.
The students can 甄試 at more than one school. If they fail that, the 甄試 students can also take the college entrance exam, essentially meaning that the rich have two cracks at getting into a good school. I blogged before on how a different but essentially similar system designed to help the underprivileged can be gamed by the rich, at a local "bilingual" school where wealthy and connected kids had their grades adjusted so that they could get into college (note that this system does work; I am merely demonstrating how such systems quickly become corrupted). Rumor has it that exactly the same thing is happening with the 甄試 system -- wealthy or attractive children are given better grades so they can get into better colleges, and give their high school face and attract more students to it. In a system where births are declining and there are fewer children each year, things are going to get cutthroat pretty fast.
The writer notes:
這五十多位來甄試的同學中，大概七成來自台北縣市，普遍來自好學區學校或貴族私校；總共只有十二位同學來自中南部。這些在學校成績和活動參與上皆出類拔萃的學生父母中，約一成是大學教授，一成是醫生，其它有企業主、基金經理人等；父母直接務農的，好像一個也沒有。難怪，系上的清寒獎學金，值金融海嘯之際，還是一直沒人申請。"There are none whose parents are farmers..." the writer teaches in the Department of Agricultural Economics. The writer then notes in the next paragraph:
Of these more than 50 students who entered through 甄試, probably 70 percent are from Taipei City and County, generally from good school districts or elite private schools. Only 12 students in all came from central and southern Taiwan...of these, one of the parents is a university professor, another a doctor, others are businessmen or fund managers, and so forth. There are none whose parents are farmers...
普遍而言，北部學生英語程度比南部學生好。這也難怪，許多學生（大部分來自台北縣市）有出國旅遊、遊學、或當交換學生的經驗，有人甚至每個暑假都出國。除此之外，他們興趣廣泛地參與多項「貴族」的活動、學習「貴族」的樂器。所以當偶爾看到甄試同學（中南部學生）中有人的興趣只有打籃球、彈吉它這類「免錢」的活動時，不免覺得落差很大。盡管他們學測成績相同，有「貴族」氣息的學生，在分類評分表上，當然是比只能從事「免錢」活動的學生占優勢。The testing system always favored the wealthy over the non-wealthy, nuclear families over extended families, people in Taipei over people elsewhere, cities over rural areas, etc: those who had access to good schools and had the money to educate their children intensively had a leg up. Perhaps there is no way to ensure that the children of non-elites have the same crack at the university system as the rich. But I think my friend's prediction is already coming true.
In general the English of students from the north is better than from the south. It is not surprising that many students (mostly from Taipei city and county) go abroad to travel, to study, or as exchange students. Some even spend every summer overseas. In addition, they participate in many "elite" activities, and learn "elite" musical instruments. When I see the 甄試 from central and southern Taiwan, whose interests are only playing basketball, playing guitar, and participating in activities that are free, I can't help but feel the gap is very great. Even though their grades are identical, students whose scorecards have "elite" activities naturally have priority over those with only free activities.
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More Daily Links
- Taoyuan Nights with an analysis of the stock market and the ridiculous coupon scheme
- AFP = Xinhua. Again. Obnoxiously.
- Typhoon Parma track from the CWB. Now a supertyphoon.
- FactMonster has some very funny facts about Taiwan. Drop them a polite line.
- Project 2049 with a piece on China's unknown cruise missile.
- John Stewart rips the Dems for being the total failures that they are. I can't wait until we have some actual Democrats in office.
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!
Why oh why can't people spell Jon Stewart's name properly???
ReplyDeleteWhere can I read about Joe Hung? It seems there's a consensus that he's ideological and bad, but what are some sources? He's also an old dude, which I think on the face of it is a huge problem when media is moving fast towards the internet and away from print.
ReplyDeleteSeeing as I blogged on the Sinopac story last night as well... Since he has no apparent commenting system, just wanted to say that the 33% is not a magical number, from a technical standpoint it makes sense. A 33% rise in the TAIEX would put it at its previous highs in 2007, putting in a double top. Do we get there though? Well, that's a different story.
ReplyDeleteThis is one reason why I object to the idea of "university interviews". Many business schools have them or require them. In fact, I was told by the dean of one school that I was considering in Hong Kong that the application process itself is only a formality. They meet you a few times before you start applying, ask their questions, and then decide whether or not they want you at their school.
ReplyDeleteThis does indeed help them get a certain type of high-caliber student in their program. But it also means that your admission depends largely on whether or not the admissions staff "likes" you.
I am not sure of what the system is that you are describing for Taiwanese HS students, but it sounds nefarious in the same way.
Why oh why can't people spell Jon Stewart's name properly???
ReplyDeleteHa! I will leave it there, just to torment you.
Where can I read about Joe Hung? It seems there's a consensus that he's ideological and bad, but what are some sources?
ReplyDeletejust read his old posts at the China Pest. Easy to find on google.
I am not sure of what the system is that you are describing for Taiwanese HS students, but it sounds nefarious in the same way.
ReplyDeleteSomeday I shall tell all in a book.
Corruption of any non-objective admissions system is a given; the question is what degree of corruption is acceptable. Partial remedies and controls -- aptitude tests as qualifiers, for example, perhaps coupled with universal national-university admission above a certain minimum, with strict grading policies (monitored by oversight committees) to weed out the lazy or incapable -- are always available if the political will to preserve and enforce a high degree of fairness is present. It’s rare when a suitable “balances” part of a “checks and balances” approach cannot be devised; thus, a system open for long to being gamed in a particular way often reflects a values problem, not a fundamental problem with a system's overall orientation.
ReplyDeleteThe test system is in large part responsible for the values problem, so it would hardly make sense to preserve or revert to the old-style test system simply because a new system manifests more clearly in some ways the evils that this old system creates. You expect problems to manifest themselves in a new system and you go to work fixing the problems, no?
But even if this fairness problem goes unfixed for an intervening period of time, the overall results may still be beneficial; whatever helps get Taiwanese to see more clearly that there are multiple routes to success in today's world -- indeed, that pouring excessive familial resources into getting a child into a national university may not be the best choice -- is a plus. The growing pains engendered by the new system seem to be generally raising awareness, and it is only through more awareness that better approaches and solutions can be found.
All of which leads to my wondering what the point is of reducing the discussion to a choice of the old-style test system or else the American university admissions system. It strikes me as a false dilemma (the either/or fallacy).
"just wanted to say that the 33% is not a magical number, from a technical standpoint it makes sense. A 33% rise in the TAIEX would put it at its previous highs in 2007, putting in a double top."
ReplyDeleteThank you for demonstrating ably why I don't have a commenting system on my blog. TA is the biggest pile of hokum pokum nonsense since snake oil was invented. FWIW I don't follow the comments on this blog usually so please don't try to contact me via here. My email is on my blog if anyone wants to discuss stuff with me. Cheers.
Mu
I recall reading some history on famous Confucian thinkers, and one of them mentioned that so-and-so scholar was very poor and had a hard time, but then he got a position grading the exams for the Chinese imperial meritocracy, which suddenly made him a rich man. (Yeah, sorry for no specifics here.)
ReplyDeleteThat made me wonder how damn meritocratic those tests could have been if bribes were accepted.
There is also a case, that such corruption will eventually become well known, and thus employers would downgrade schools that allowed such entrants.
ReplyDeleteIn a similar vein, I have met Stanford students who told me that if they failed a course, it would be erased from the record, and they could take it again. "nobody fails out of Stanford."
Mu, no one wants to discuss over email if they are posting a comment publicly here. If you find that inconvenient then enable comments. If you don't like all those comments, then enable moderation.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I agree with your position on the market predictions (and also strongly disagree with Richard's position) but your analogy is very strained. If it works, you're not doing a good job of showing why Sinopac's irresponsible prediction is a case of anchoring.