CID Written Report

CID Written Report

Group 2

Education and Transportation of China

Education in China

Current Minister of Education: Yuan Guiren

All citizens must attend school for at least nine years, known as the nine-year compulsory education, which the government funds. It includes six years of primary education, starting at age six or seven, and three years of junior secondary education (middle school) for ages 12 to 15. The attendance rate for primary school is 99%, while the average for primary and middle school is 88%.

Examinations

“中考” (Zhongkao) , the Senior High School Entrance Examination, is the academic examination held annually in China to distinguish junior graduates. Generally speaking, students will be tested in Chinese, Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, Political Science and PE. However, the scoring system may change, and vary between different areas.

“高考” (Gaokao), is an academic examination held annually in People's Republic of China. This examination is a prerequisite for entrance into almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level. It is usually taken by students in their last year of senior high school, although there has been no age restriction since 2001. The overall mark received by the student is generally a weighted sum of their subject marks. The maximum possible mark varies widely from year to year and also varies from province to province.

Reform in the 21^st century

In 1998, the Chinese government proposed expand university enrollment of professional and specialized graduates and develop world class universities. Restructuring, through consolidations, mergers and shifts among the authorities which supervise institutions, was aimed at addressing the problems of small size and low efficiency. This rapid expansion of mass higher education has resulted in not only a strain in teaching resources but also in higher unemployment rates among graduates. This increases the competency of the students and hence prepares students well for the 21^st century workforce.

As this expansion goes on, the educational level of Chinese has increased, getting into college is no longer a remarkable achievement among the Chinese students. Instead, having a degree of an ordinary Chinese university already can’t satisfy the increasingly competitive society. Chinese parents and students have begun to place a high value on overseas education, especially at top American and European institutions such as Harvard University, Oxford University, and Cambridge University.

Shanghai Nan Yang High School

Shanghai Nan Yang High School was founded in 1896 by Chinese patriotic educationists Mr. Wang Peisun and Mr. Wang Liusheng. During the past 107 years, the school has had the school vision which is "independent, realistic, thrifty and simple, and fond of learning”. As a result of the several generations’ efforts, Shanghai Nan Yang High School has been a famous high school in Shanghai.

Nan Yang High School cultivated a large number of talented people in history : the famous photographer Lang Jingshan the famous writer Ba Jin, and the outstanding diplomat Gu WeiJun of China etc. Today Nan Yang High School continues cultivating the ability of ridge beam for the society.

Nan Yang High School has caught hold of the great opportunity of development in recent years. With the joint efforts of all teachers and students, they run the school with advanced thoughts of management, high historical civilization, rigorous and steady educational teaching style, bright teaching characteristics, diligent teaching staff, and marked effect in teaching quality.

Hui District will transform along the Huangpu River according to " high standard, high requirement, high starting point ". Nan Yang High School is along the Huangpu River and it will be built into a modern school with the standard of " experimental and modal high school ".

The school is constructing a new international platform, which will strengthen the educational exchange with Germany , Australia , France and Japan and more. Because of the good reputation of the school, Nan Yang High School gains the trust from some parts of French colleges and Pacific college of Liming guan university of Japan. And it explores further studies in France and Japan and emphasizes the learning of French and English. Some colleges provide students of Nan Yang High School with fixed scholarships every year. After passing the entrance examination, qualified students of Nan Yang High School will be recommended.

Transportation in China

There are many methods transport available in China. They are by train, plane, car, bicycle and boats.

By Train

The train is one of the main means of transportation in China and the national rail network is the world's third largest. As of 2010 it is 91,000km. The Chinese railroads transported 453.25 million passengers from January 2012 to April 2012.

By Plane

The air travel also knew a strong growth since the late 1990s. China's Beijing capital international airport is rated 4 stats by Skytrax, compared to Singapore's 5 and Dubai's 4. Beijing has the second busiest airport in the world having about 82 000 000 passengers

By Bicycle

China without its numerous bikes is not any more China! Even if cars and motor vehicles (or electric) invade gradually big cities, the bicycle, the easiest and most economic style of transportation, still remains the favourite of the Chinese people.

By Boat

China has 110,000 kilometres of navigable rivers, streams, lakes, and canals, more than any country in the world.

Transportation Planning of China

The rapid growth in car ownership has made things more convenient  for many but has also brought traffic congestion, accidents, and air pollution. The construction of new roads to accommodate traffic leads to urban sprawl and accelerated traffic growth and hampers the mobility of those who do not own a car.

National policy has been promoting a ‘people-centered’ development concept, which emphasizes the movement of people rather than the movement of vehicles. It also calls for developing a “resource-saving and environmentally-friendly” society in line with the national CO2 intensity target of a 40-45% reduction from 2005 levels by 2020.

Given these goals, Chinese cities have an opportunity to plan the development of their cities in a way that minimizes the need for travel and directs a large share of investment towards the development of safe, clean and affordable transport systems.

The composition of these projects is also shifting from an earlier focus on road infrastructure development to a more diverse one which covers public transport, traffic engineering and management, road safety, travel demand management, walking and cycling, sustainable land use planning, and integration across modes.

This program of aims for more sustainable forms of transport.

Compared to Singapore

Definitely, everything in Singapore is miniature in comparison to China. China traffic death rate is 20%, while Singapore traffic death rate is 5%. People who want to buy a car in Singapore have to pay for the Certificate of Entitlement(COE) in order to get the car, but China does not have to.

Zhong Xun's Reflection

Reflect on china's dilemma between pursuing higher economic growth and escalating pollution due to the industrialization

Pursuing higher economic growth means that more industrials are being build. With all these new industrials, China is developing very quickly, economic growth is at a fast rate. Due to abundant lands and cheap labors, many factories are being build to allow efficient mass production. Industrial factories produces green house gases, causing air pollution to the environment. Health of the Chinese citizens and animals may also be affected. The standard of living also improve with all this new technologies in their daily lives. Electronics gadgets and appliances are becoming more and more common in the country, thus more energy is being used up while more carbon dioxide is being given out. All these things contribute to pollution and global warming.

Jiun Chyi's Reflections

Reflect on the China's dilemma between pursuing higher economic growth and escalating pollution due to the industrialization.

Higher economic growth for China will result in more jobs created for their large population, a better income for the people and for China to prosper. But this would also mean more factories bulid for mass production of goods or products. Building factories and machinery used to produce the goods would release smoke that would pollute the air. This would result in more health problems for the people in China like asthma being triggered by the pollutants. Thus i think that it is better to prevent the escalating pollution as health problems cannot be reversed. But that was just my say, out there are more problems to this dilemma than what I know of. Well it is certainly a dilemma between pursuing higher economic growth and escalating pollution due to industrialization.

Yong Xuan's reflections

Reflect on china's dilemma between pursuing higher economic growth and escalating pollution due to the industrialization.

In order to meet the dream of having higher economic growth, China has an increase in the number of factories and industries that invent products to be sold.  However, they did not realise that factories and industries emit high level of greenhouse gases and air pollutants, which can lead to global warming as well as air pollution, that in turn can lead to health problems to their citizens.  But if they were to stop all the factory work, they would have a drop in the number of products made to be sold to the rest of the world.  Hence they would also have lesser incoming and outgoing stock and their economic rate will not improve.  Hence it is really a dilemma between pursuing higher economic growht and escalating pollution due to the industrialization.  

Max's reflections

China's dilemma between pursuing higher economic growth and escalating pollution due to the industrialization.

China is currently a developing country due to its conservative nature in the past, not wanting to learn from the westerners. As china has lost a lot of time while using its old Confucius methods, it is trying to pursue higher economic growth and modernise itself to open itself into the world. This comes at a cost. As china is industrializing itself, it builds many factories and starts building many buildings to reach a higher standard of life. All these releases carbon dioxide and chemicals into the air. Some factories also dump their chemicals into land fills or into the sea. This causes the seas to be polluted, affecting the marine life that other countries might use as food. The marine life in the polluted waters will be polluted and might be contaminated, rendering the person who consumes it contaminated, too. This results in consequences such as mutation of both animals and humans alike. When china releases chemicals into the air, the air gets polluted and forms acid rain. This rain will cause forests to die out, animals to be contaminated and eventually die, and also corrode most buildings. However, without industrialization, china will be lagging behind and will not remain as a worldwide superpower. Furthermore, due to overpopulation, china has to cut down forests to make space for new houses and developments, having lesser trees to absorb the pollutants from the air. To continue industrializing or not, the people's lives always come first. The china government should ask themselves whether their title as a superpower matters more, or their health.

Swee Leng's reflection

Reflect on china's dilemma between pursuing higher economic growth and escalating pollution due to the industrialization.

Higher economic growth means that more factories will have to be built to produce more manufactured good efficiently. These manufactured goods will then be imported out to different parts of the world. China makes money from this, and hence there will be a higher economic growth. However, the smoke that comes from the factories causes air pollution. Air pollution harms the health of the Chinese living in the city. Those with respiratory conditions might even have a relapse and die. 

It is indeed a dilemma between pursuing higher economic growth and escalating pollution!

Si Min's reflection

China has been rapidly advancing ahead of other countries such as Japan in terms of GDP. However, in order to advance, China has to pay a price which is escalating pollution in their country. 

Impact of pursuing higher economic growth:

- standard of living increases 

- employment problems reduced greatly 

- more imports from China, earning more money

- cheap labour

- cheap rental

- mass production in China

- pro business politics 

Impact of pollution in China 

- health problems rises

- contribution to the global warming 

- Change in the weather and climate