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NO CAR may honk nor lorry rumble near secondary schools on the two days when students are taking their university entrance exams, known as gaokao. Teenagers have been cramming for years for these tests, which they believe (with justification) will determine their entire future. Yet it is at an earlier stage of education that an individual’s life chances in China are usually mapped out, often in ways that are deeply unfair.

在高考---也就是中國高等學校入學考試的兩天內，在高中附近的地方不能有嗡嗡的汽車喇叭聲，更不能有轟隆隆的貨車通行。為了此次高考，學生們已經進行多年填鴨式地學習，他們認為(有充分的理由)，這次考試將會決定他們的一生。不過，其實在教育更為早期的階段，個人的生活已經被決定了，而且通常是以不太公平的方式。

To give more students access to higher education, the government has increased its investment in the sector five fold since 1997. The number of universities has nearly doubled. In 1998 46% of secondary-school graduates went on to university. Now 88% of them do. About 7m people—roughly one-third of those aged between 18 and 22—now gain entry to some form of higher institution each year.

為了給更多學生接受高等教育的機會，政府自1997年以來，在教育領域的投資增加了5倍之多。大學的數目幾乎增加一倍。在1998年，有46%的高中生上大學，而現在有88%的高中生上大學。每年大概有700萬人，也就是18歲到22歲年輕人的三分之一，有機會接受高一級的教育。

China’s universities offer more opportunity for social mobility than those in many other countries, says James Lee of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. But the social backgrounds of those admitted have been changing. Until 1993, more than 40% of students were the children of farmers or factory workers. Now universities are crammed with people from wealthy, urban backgrounds. That is partly because a far bigger share of young people are middle-class. But it is also because rural Chinese face bigger hurdles getting into them than they used to.

香港科技大學的詹姆斯.李稱，中國的大學和其他國家相比，提供了更多的社會流動性。但入學學生的社會背景已經發生變化。直到1993，有超四成的學生來自農民或工人家庭。而現在的學生都是來自城市中的富裕家庭。這可能是因為很大一部分的年輕人來自中產階級，但也是因為中國的農民正面臨前所未有的困難。

The problem lies with inequality of access to senior high schools, which take students for the final three years of their secondary education. Students from rural backgrounds who go to such schools perform as well in the university entrance exams as those from urban areas. But most never get there. Less than 10% of young people in the countryside go to senior high schools compared with 70% of their urban counterparts. The result is that a third of urban youngsters complete tertiary education, compared with only 8% of young rural adults.

問題在于高中階段的不公平，在高中，學生將會完成第二階段教育的最后三年。進入高中的農村學生，和那些城市學生在高考中表現的一樣好。但大部分農村學生都沒有機會進入高中學習。不到一成的農村年輕人會上高中，而7成的城市年輕人會上高中，這也導致有三分之一的城市年輕人能夠完成他們的第三階段教育---大學，而農村學生僅有8%的比例。

One reason is that junior high schools in the countryside are far weaker academically than urban ones. Local governments invest less in them per student than they do in cities. Urban parents tend to be better educated and thus better able to help children with their studies.

一個原因是農村的初中教育質量遠低于城市。對每個學生的人均投入，地方政府給城市的，要遠多于農村。而且城市的父母教育程度更高，能更好地輔導學生的學習。

Expense is a huge deterrent for many. Governments cover the costs of schooling for the nine years of compulsory education up to the age of around 15. But at senior high schools, families must pay tuition and other expenses; these outlays are among the highest in the world (measured by purchasing-power parity). Many students drop out of junior high school—which isfree—because rising wages in low-skilled industrial work make the prospect of staying at school even less attractive. Millions enter the workforce every year who are barely literate or numerate。

此外，費用問題對農村學生來說也是一大障礙。在九年義務教育階段，也就是到學生大概15歲左右，政府負責學生上學的費用，但是上高中，農民們就需要自己付學費和其他費用。(根據購買力測算)，中國的這類費用，在全世界范圍內都屬于高昂的。而且，還有很多學生在免費的初中就輟學，因為工業的低技術工種工資不斷上升，也讓繼續求學的吸引力越來越低。成千上萬的年輕人進入社會，而這些人還屬于半文盲。

ince the 1990s more than 200m people have moved from the countryside to work in cities. Many have left their children behind because of the difficulty of getting them into urban schools: the country’s system of hukou, or household registration, makes it hard for migrant children to enjoy subsidised education in places other than their parents’ birthplace.

從上世紀90年代開始，有2億人從農村進入城市。有很多人因為無法將孩子送到城市中的學校，而把他們留到了老家：中國的戶口系統使農民工的孩子，無法在他們父母出生地之外享受義務教育。

Unnatural selection

非自然的選擇

Children from poor backgrounds who do make it as far as the gaokao face another difficulty: competition with better-prepared candidates from 700 or so feeder (usually known as “keypoint”) schools. These receive more funding per student than average schools, have better teachers and plusher facilities. They are supposed to train the brightest students, but many get in with the help of money and connections.

來自貧困家庭的學生即使能參加高考，也會面臨另一重困難：和來自大約700余所重點中學的學生競爭。這里的學生和普通學生相比，國家對每個學生的投入更多，擁有更好的教師和昂貴的器材。他們本應該教育最優秀的學生，但很多學生是通過金錢和關系進去的。

Hoping to make the system fairer, some feeder schools now allocate places on the basis of pupils’ proximity. Inevitably, this has sent local house prices skyrocketing, reinforcing the schools’ privileged intake by a different means.

為了使教育體系更公平，一些重點學生以距離學校遠近來招收學生。不可避免地，這使當地房價快速上漲，同時，也阻止有采用各種特殊方法進入學校的新生。

Some of the feeder schools channel their pupils into the best universities via an alternative route to the gaokao. The Ministry of Education introduced this in 2003 to reward people with “special talents” that are tricky to assess through standardized tests, such as innovative thinking, creativity, or skills in sport or art. This was supposed to make the types of students attending university more varied. Instead it has increased inequality, by giving advantages to those who have benefited from the superior facilities of key point schools.

一些重點高中還通過替代通道送其學生進入重點大學。中國教育部在2003年獎勵一些通過高考有難度的“特殊人才”，包括有創新思維，或者體育、藝術特長。這本是想讓更多類型的學生能進入不同的大學學習，但與此相反，它反而助漲了不公平，特別是那些通過不公平手段進入重點高中的那群人。

The government is trying to reduce other unfairnesses, too. But it has been tough going: those who benefit from unequal opportunities are unsurprisingly reluctant to cede their privileges. This was evident from the outcry that followed an announcement last month that 12 provinces and cities would have to reduce quotas for local students at their universities. These allow universities to accept local students even though they may have lower gaokao scores than those from elsewhere. The news triggered protests in three cities by parents who worried about losing a precious advantage for their children.

政府也在嘗試降低不公平性，但這相當困難：那些享受到不公平機會的人不愿放棄自己的特權。這個道理顯而易見，特別是上個月12個省市宣布降低本地學生的錄取名額通告后，爆發的那場抗議。原來，即使本地學生的高考分數線比其他地方略低，本地大學仍會錄取。這條消息導致三個地方的家長進行抗議，他們擔心這將會影響到自己的孩子。