Is it suitable for high school students to take self-study exams?

On the two biggest monsters in China’s education industry - self-study examinations in colleges and universities and adult education

A few days ago, a classmate who returned from abroad came to visit me at my university. When walking on the campus of what is known as "one of the most beautiful universities in the country", from time to time, some "alternative" men and women will come face to face. Since he went out directly after graduating from high school and did not understand the "special" situation in domestic universities, he asked me: "Since it is a famous university in the country, how come there are such students? Are there some prostitutes selling sex on campus?" I said. Tell him, "Those students took self-study exams or took adult education."

He was even more surprised, "I've heard of self-study exams, but isn't it 'self-study'? How could it be in school? Your school enrolls students who take self-study exams. Do they have student status and are they college students?" I replied with a wry smile: "They are products of money and interests. No one can tell their identities clearly. They are not college students or non-college students. If something happens to these people, the commercial media will It will definitely be reported as "a certain college student...", but in fact, in the eyes of regular students and teachers, no one can tell clearly..." p>

Since the 1990s, there has been a strange phenomenon in 99% of colleges and universities in China: there is a group of "students" living in universities who enter universities directly without the requirement of college entrance examination and have no student status. , does not participate in college activities, does not have a library card, and does not even have formal teaching. No one could tell who they were—students or non-students. However, the existence of such people has caused some things that should not happen in colleges and universities, making it impossible for colleges and universities to defend some of their contradictory behaviors. Nowadays, many colleges and universities want to avoid these "students" from bringing negative effects to the school and do not want to lose them. With the considerable economic benefits brought about, some abandoned primary schools, factories, and warehouses have been purchased or rented outside the school as "teaching points." These students are not "comfortable with the status quo" and rent houses and live together near the teaching site, forming a "special landscape" and bringing about a series of social problems. What has caused such an impact are the self-study exams in colleges and universities and adult education, which are known as the two monsters of Chinese education.

I am not opposed to the self-study examination system. The country’s self-study examination policy is wise. First, some relatively poor students have gained national recognition through self-study through their own efforts. Secondly, some college and technical secondary school graduates have provide space for further development of academic abilities. However, there are also some problems with ordinary self-study examinations. First, most candidates study for the exam, and their true abilities are questionable. Second, the authenticity of many students' results is questionable. Before the country completely rectifies self-study exams, self-study diplomas are waste paper equivalent to waste paper.

However, the "college self-study examination classes" (also known as "self-study examination classes" or "full-time self-study examination classes") that exist in colleges and universities are collectively referred to as "college self-study examination classes" or "college self-study examination classes" in this article. Self-Study Class”) its existence is a mistake. In fact, this kind of "self-study examination in colleges and universities" appeared in the 1980s, but it really took off in the 1990s. Article 28 of Chapter 6 of the "Interim Regulations on Self-study Examinations for Higher Education" "encourages enterprises, institutions and other social forces to carry out various forms of student assistance activities." This is the basis for the existence of self-study examination classes in colleges and universities. However, neither the Ministry of Education nor the State Education Commission recognizes the existence of "self-study examination classes for colleges and universities," but colleges and universities can organize self-study examination classes. Let’s not discuss the negative effects of self-study classes in colleges and universities for the time being. There must be objective factors in any matter. So what led to the emergence and existence of self-study classes in colleges and universities? I once discussed with the vice president the issue of each college recruiting and establishing self-study students and self-study examination centers. He replied that no matter which college it is, recruiting self-study students and setting up self-study classes will bring many negative effects, but there is only one factor. --money.

Regular college students enrolled under the national unified enrollment system are "students of the country", and their tuition fees are transferred to the school's finances and are uniformly managed by the school - turned over, stored, disbursed and managed. In fact, although tuition fees are already a huge expense for many families, in fact for many colleges and universities, especially key and famous universities, student tuition fees are a bit insignificant in the school's financial funds. The main sources of financial funds for the development of the school include student (including graduate students) tuition fees, scientific research funds, national education financial allocations, social sponsorship, sales of school scientific research results and income from school-run enterprises.

The salary of teachers in colleges and universities is fixed. Some teachers, especially those at professor level or above, now rely on scientific research funds and scientific and technological achievements to obtain objective additional income. But for the vast majority of ordinary lecturers, there is no such lucrative additional source. Compared with the working class, the salary of university teachers is not low, but there is still a certain gap compared with the high-paid class. Even if there is no gap, of course no one will give up the opportunity to obtain financial benefits. In order to obtain additional income, self-study examination classes for colleges and universities emerged as an adjunct to the university.

In terms of tuition fees, the tuition fees for self-study students are not much higher than those for regular college students. However, this money is not within the scope of school management, and the state education agencies do not interfere. These funds belong to the department-level units that run self-study classes. Part of these funds are used for teaching activities and management of self-study students, and part is used for the development and construction of departments (the money from self-study students benefits regular students). , the vast majority were given to teachers, some of whom were graduate students or even undergraduates. Some teachers even earn more than half of their personal income from teaching self-study students. Some teachers once told me the truth: "Although it is boring to teach self-study students and adult students, they are all willing to teach because there is more money." If self-study students are cancelled, college teachers will lose a considerable amount of income.

In the temptation of financial interests, when enrolling students in self-study classes, almost no factors of the students are considered, which is what we often hear about "exam-free admission." A friend of mine went to his hometown to recruit students for self-study exams during the summer vacation. When we came back and had dinner together, I asked him what his requirements were for finding students. He asked me: "What do you think the requirements are?" "If you can get into a college, you won't take the self-study exam. If you really want to take the self-study exam, you don't have to go so far to be a student who is not a student. To put it simply, as long as you are We recruit people." "We are also making money against our conscience. We try to make parents believe that they are also sending their children to school, but in fact..." He smiled and did not continue. One summer vacation, he recruited fifteen self-study students and received 10,000 yuan in return.

A teacher once said to me, "Although you can get a lot of money by teaching self-taught students, I never expect these students to learn anything from me. I just finish every class and leave." "There is not much meaning in 'teaching' students who take self-study exams." Her words are the thoughts of almost all teachers who teach self-study exams. Do self-study students really think they can learn things like ordinary college students in self-study classes in colleges and universities? That's impossible.

I have discussed the difficulty of going to college with almost all my high school and college classmates. Most of my classmates and friends think that it is not difficult to go to college or even key universities. They all think that it is very easy to go to college. Learning from elementary school to high school is easy. But no one thinks that college courses are easy. Studying in college is indeed more difficult than ever. We study hard, but we still fail, and some are even eliminated. The vast majority of self-study students are those who failed the college entrance examination, and even the college entrance examination with minimum score requirements cannot be passed. Students with scores below 400 points come to study university courses. If they can learn well, it can be said to be a miracle. Some people even say " If these self-study students can learn college courses well, maybe our education sequence should be reversed. "It is impossible to learn college courses well if they cannot learn middle school courses well."

"In colleges and universities, self-taught students and adult education students can usually be seen at a glance." No one will deny that the quality of most self-taught students and adult education students is very low, as mentioned at the beginning of this article Some students are "like young ladies who come to school for prostitution." Whether you admit it or not, you cannot avoid the fact that self-study students in self-study classes have seriously damaged the image of colleges and universities. Some even say that "self-study students and adult students are unsettling factors on campus." maker". For example, in an off-campus apartment of a university in Guangdong, only regular undergraduates from the school lived. There were basically no cases when the undergraduates lived in the apartment. In 2001, after self-taught students and adult students moved into the apartment, the average number of There was a theft every week, and eventually the school had to transfer ordinary students to colleges. In fact, this kind of example can be found in various colleges and universities across the country. Some people even say that 90% of the cases of students committing crimes on campus are self-taught students or adult education students. Although this data has no credible source, most people believe this data, and some people I don’t believe it, I said this data should be 95%.

Nowadays, many colleges and universities (especially key colleges and universities), in order to avoid the negative impact of self-study examination students, have purchased some abandoned old schools, factory dormitories and even workshops in the city of the university as self-study examination classes or adult education A “teaching point” for students.

Many self-study students have good family conditions. Due to lack of supervision or quality problems, many self-study students generally do not live in the dormitories provided by universities, but rent houses outside the teaching sites. Some are Living together is sometimes used for playing games or even gambling. It can be used for almost any purpose except studying.

In a large city in central China, there are some "urban villages" near many universities. Many residents of these "urban villages" derive their income from renting out their houses. 60% of the houses in these villages are It is used for renting to students. The vast majority of these students are self-taught students or adult education students, and there are only a handful of regular students. These "urban villages" are usually areas with high incidence of cases, and some cases even spread to the campus. An official from the Department of Education once said sadly at a meeting of university presidents: "Some urban villages have become a cancer outside universities. ”

Although it is difficult to say that the self-study students in the self-study classes of colleges and universities are students of the school. No teacher admits that, and ordinary students will not regard self-study students or adult students as the same people, but there are often rumors in the media. Negative news such as "a certain college student..." are actually self-study students or adult students in some college self-study classes. Because they want to attract public attention, or reporters are ignorant, and of course self-study candidates call themselves "college students," non-college students in colleges and universities are often reported as "college students." Of course, if you ask a self-study candidate whether he or she is a college student, he or she will almost certainly answer that he or she is a college student at a certain university.

Regular college students are disdainful of being compared with self-study students or adult education students. Basically, ordinary students have a discriminatory attitude towards self-study students. Many undergraduates say that "self-study students and adult education students have brought evil and chaos." ,” there were even slogans in the classrooms and dormitories of a certain university that read “High School Self-Study Examination and Dogs Are Not Allowed”.

There may be many people who are unhappy with self-study students. The vast majority of self-study students think that their "ability is no worse than that of regular undergraduates." This is called "crazy talk" by many people. "If self-study students are better than college students, then the country will What’s the point of running a university?” Self-study students are either short-sighted or looking for a job to create public opinion. The actual situation is: There may be one or two outstanding students in self-study examination classes in colleges and universities across the country every year (these are usually self-study examinations for technical secondary school graduates), but it cannot change the overall quality and low ability of the vast majority of self-study examination students. .

Compared with regular university education, self-study classes in colleges and universities are “cultivating” students with “the worst teaching methods, the worst management, and the worst software and hardware environment.” No one would think that this kind of A teaching environment produces talented students. Some self-taught students and adult education students majored in computer or computer-related fields (many of them, because they are popular). During the four years of studying in self-taught classes, “they have never touched any other computer except for those in Internet cafes. Students in self-taught classes have almost no hardware teaching equipment.” It's hard to say that they can't learn well in middle school. Even if they receive a formal university education, it will be in vain whether it is a university teacher or an accomplished person's understanding of a person's learning ability. "The key is math ability. If you are good at math, you will not be bad at other things; if you are bad at math, it will be difficult to learn well." "This sentence is very reasonable. Mathematics is a reflection of a person's brain ability and learning ability. Mathematics is very critical to the cultivation of a person's brain reasoning and analytical abilities. Poor academic performance is often poor in mathematics, and mathematics scores It is impossible to learn any subject well if you are so bad. However, there are basically "people without math skills" in the self-study classes in colleges and universities, and their mathematical abilities are very lacking, so it is difficult to say that they have any hope of learning. It is established based on market demand, so many of them are popular majors, such as computers, communications, finance, etc., and these courses are based on mathematics. For example, computer courses include advanced mathematics, linear mathematics, statistics, probability, Analytical mathematics, discrete mathematics, engineering mathematics, and complex variable functions are almost impossible to teach without mathematics, and are almost impossible for self-study students to understand, so it is impossible for self-study students to understand them. I once asked someone in the college. How can the colleague in charge of self-study students teach these students? He smiled and replied: "It's not a question we teach. How many of them do you think can learn it?" ".

Many colleges and universities, especially key colleges and universities, state when recruiting graduate students that "candidates with equivalent academic qualifications are not admitted (basically they are science and engineering majors))," which is actually for self-study students and adult education students. negative. Because there is really “no point” in applying for self-study examinations or adult education students. Even if some self-study examinations or adult education students are admitted to graduate school (there are only a few cases of self-study examination students in science and engineering majors admitted to graduate school every year in the country), but when they study for graduate school, these students "I know nothing except taking exams", and I don't even know how to use professional computer software.

It is difficult to say what abilities the students “trained” by self-study examination classes in colleges and universities have. Some self-study students may be dissatisfied, thinking that they can also operate computers, are familiar with computers, and know some computer software. This kind of frog-in-the-well vision is clearly revealed. Some female graduate students majoring in computer science may not be familiar with computer configurations, let alone assembling computers, but what they do know is the core content of computer software and hardware and methods of solving problems. For example, self-taught students majoring in computer science cannot write some higher-level programs at all, because that requires a deep mathematical foundation. They think that knowing some very commonly used software is called ability. This understanding of "ability" is too distorted. . What do teachers teach in college and what do students get? Core knowledge, learning ability, inference ability and knowledge accumulation, and most importantly, the widest range of information and knowledge obtained from the library. University teaching requirements are not to allow students to specifically learn what to do and how to do it, because they do not need to directly operate the machine ——At that time, it was a matter of senior skilled workers (also talents). I didn't know how to program in JAVA originally, but it only took me half a month to master it.

Society has no prejudice against self-study students in colleges and universities. This is the fact. "Society has prejudice against self-study students" is a self-righteous statement made by self-study students. Everything that exists has a reason, just like if someone says a pig is a pig, is that a curse?

Nowadays, there is a big propaganda in the media that "there are too many college students". I do not agree with this statement, but if it is difficult for college students to find a job, self-study students will be worthless. I once suggested to my mentor and friend, a professor who is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a representative of the National People's Congress, to propose a motion to "cancel (ban) He Chengjiao, a self-study examination class in colleges and universities" at the National People's Congress, but he always shook his head - Economics Profit comes first.

Many people use "fulfilling the desire of failed students to go to college" as an excuse for the existence of self-study classes in colleges and universities. As for higher education, the inclusion of adult students or self-study students in the school proves that the university has sufficient software and hardware equipment and teachers, and has the ability to further expand enrollment. If the university has this capacity, it should further expand enrollment, that is, "satisfy more students". "People hope to go to college." Of course, even if enrollment continues to expand, those who take self-study classes will basically not be able to go to college. However, in fact, the expansion of regular student enrollment for several years has made colleges and universities somewhat overwhelmed, and they have begun to reduce their enrollment scale. The contradiction between the reduction of enrollment in colleges and universities and the occupation of school resources by self-study examination students shows that the self-study examination in colleges and universities is just an accessory and low-end product. Just like some people say that "adult education is a stepmother" and "the self-study examination for higher education is not a stepmother" (some people also say that "adult education is a stepmother") Call him a son of a bitch)".

Self-study classes in colleges and universities do not belong to the education system, and sometimes they do not even belong to colleges and universities. Neither the Ministry of Education nor the State Education Commission can tell how many self-study classes and self-study students there are in colleges and universities across the country. Since these people are not included in the national data, it often causes confusion in the national statistical data. Many self-study students take self-study exams across provinces and cities in order to pursue "prestigious universities". As a result, various national resources are not allocated as planned, such as transportation departments, food The department and even the public security department (self-study candidates did not have their household registration transferred) did not operate normally as planned. Therefore, the existence of self-study examinations in colleges and universities affects the allocation of national resources.

Self-study examination classes in colleges and universities are driven by economic interests and often contain deceptive factors. For every self-taught student who is admitted, the admissions personnel (usually students or even some unidentified personnel) usually receive a kickback of at least 600 yuan, and sometimes even a thousand yuan. Some admissions staff use sweet words to deceive parents, almost making them believe that their children are regular college students and are just "self-funded students." Some unscrupulous admissions staff even deceive parents that these are "flexible quotas" and ask for huge amounts of money from parents. "Indicator fee".

Although self-study classes in colleges and universities can fill some of the welfare problems of teachers in colleges and universities and increase the income of college teachers, especially lecturers and teaching assistants, they have brought a series of adverse effects to colleges and universities and society, and many social problems have arisen. , seriously affecting the reputation of universities. Generally speaking, the harm outweighs the benefits, so self-study classes in colleges and universities must be cancelled, and the diplomas issued by self-study classes in colleges and universities with the word "college" on them and the degrees awarded by colleges and universities must be refused to be recognized.

College self-study examination classes, a deformity created by the intersection of higher education institutions and the self-study examination system, must be banned. “If allowed to continue to develop, it will inevitably have a serious negative impact on China’s higher education.”

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In addition, there is another anomaly in China’s higher education—adult education. Compared with self-study examination classes in colleges and universities, adult education is legitimate and recognized by the state. Historically, before the age limit for the college entrance examination was relaxed, adult education It has played an important role in providing higher education to some older people and cultivating talents for state-owned enterprises. But now adult education has been deformed. The actual age of so-called "adult education students" is the same as that of regular college students, and the century significance of "adult education" has been lost. In fact, adult education students and self-taught students are the same concept. Except for the different admission methods, everything else is the same. They are ways for teachers to increase their income. The same quality, the same teaching, the same student quality, the same student ability, sometimes adult education students Students seem to be further behind because the exams of adult education students have no credibility.

Now that the college entrance examination age and other restrictions are relaxed, it is only a matter of time before adult education is cancelled. In fact, I was recruited as a representative of our unit before going back to school for graduate school. There is a tacit principle in society—— After 1996, adult education diplomas are equivalent to waste paper.

The most humorous aspects of adult education topics come from abroad. "Adult education" is literally translated into English as "Adult-Education". This word means "pornographic education" in English. Without explanation, many foreign institutions believe that there are "pornographic education institutions" in Chinese universities.

Finally, some advice for self-study students in college self-study classes:

1. Don’t tell others that you are a college student, let alone a college student from a certain university;

2. Don’t think too highly of yourself. You should face yourself. Your status is not much different from that in high school;

3. Don’t cause chaos to colleges and universities, don’t cause chaos to society, and don’t strive to be the best. Colleges and universities and social instability.

Also give some advice to colleges and universities:

1. When promoting your own college, do not write “XXXX number of students in various types of adult education”, because the more adult education students and self-study students, the higher the number. School education becomes more chaotic;

2. It is best to transfer self-study students and adult education students to off-campus self-study centers to draw a clear line between self-study students and college students to avoid self-study students from discrediting the school;

< p>3. Recognize the form, gradually reduce the size of self-study classes in colleges and universities until they are cancelled, and gradually adapt to using other means to fill the vacancies after the cancellation of self-study classes, so as to avoid the chaos caused by untimely response after the introduction of national policies.