arts | Luo Xiaolan Wang Jing

edit| Mao Yijun

One-step

As expected, his name was not on the list. After the college entrance examination last summer, Yang Rui stood in front of the school bulletin board. The yellow and red honor roll exuded a festive atmosphere, and the admitted schools were printed densely on several sheets of paper. He saw that classmates with lower scores than him were also on the list. They went to ordinary first-tier colleges or second-tier colleges in provincial capitals, while he applied to a local second-tier college, with a primary education orientation.

Yang Rui joked, "It's normal that × University is not on the list." In this small city in northern Guangdong, the high school he attended ranked first in the city. According to the school's official website, the undergraduate rate has been over 98% for many years. When the head teacher learned of his application, he said, "It's not impossible." Yang Rui remembered that in his class, only two students applied to this university, and he was one of them.

This is the result of several dinner table meetings held by the Yang family. Students who are oriented to be teachers do not have to worry about employment. Yang Rui's score is 11 points higher than the first-tier line. He said that he had two positives before the college entrance examination and performed poorly. Normally, he can score 40 or 50 points higher and get into a 211 university. He wants to repeat his studies, but the tuition fee for a private high school is tens of thousands of yuan a year.(Note: In order to ensure the fairness of the college entrance examination, many provinces, including Guangdong, prohibit public high schools from recruiting repeaters)My father said that I could only support him for one year in case I lost the bet.

He wanted to get into a non-key university and found several key majors in universities outside the province, but his grandparents were against it, saying it was too far from home. His uncle and aunt also came and advised him to consider the reality. He brought up the viewpoint provided by his classmates - the current system is no longer a permanent job, and many teachers in the small county of his hometown cannot pay their salaries.

As a student majoring in science, Yang Rui preferred and was good at science and engineering, and was optimistic about the major of electrical engineering and automation. After arguing for half a month, he said that the destinations of students from local colleges were not as stable as those from South China Normal University. His family told him directly that if he didn't have that score, he shouldn't even consider it.

What finally convinced him was reality. His family was poor, his mother was mentally disabled, and his father was visually impaired and worked as a blind masseur. His grandparents were in their seventies and had old age diseases, and the family relied on government subsidies and his father's salary of a few thousand yuan to survive. As the "hope of the whole family", Yang Rui accepted the arrangement of fate and planned to return to his hometown to take care of the family as soon as he graduated from university. If he went to school in the north, he would not be able to bring daily necessities such as quilts with him, and buying them locally would also be a considerable expense. Targeted students are exempt from tuition fees and will work in the targeted area for 6 years in the future. He thought about it and felt that the time was not too long.

He told himself that the purpose of going to college is to find a job. Targeted students are found in colleges and universities. Their majors mainly involve teachers, police officers, grassroots health workers, etc. After graduation, they have employment quotas. Professional colleges generally have more such targeted majors, and some have just been upgraded to undergraduate programs. A friend with a similar score to Yang Rui also applied for this category and went to Guangdong Police College.

●Screenshot of Yang Rui's college entrance examination results. Photo provided by the narrator

Nowadays, the mainstream is to seek stability. In July this year, a female student majoring in liberal arts from Zhejiang Province was admitted to Zhejiang Mechanical and Electrical Vocational and Technical University with a score of 602. In an interview with a TV station, she said: "The employment rate released by the school is 98%, which is very attractive. In addition, graduates are employed by large enterprises such as China Railway Bureau, which is more popular." A staff member of the school told us that this year the school was upgraded from a junior college to an undergraduate program, and the highest admission score increased by 70 to 80 points compared with last year. He found in recent years when recruiting students that students generally have clear goals and are most concerned about postgraduate entrance examinations, civil service examinations and employment.

For this certainty, a boy from the south scored nearly 100 points above the first-tier line and studied at the second-tier police academy in the province. It was not difficult to make this decision. He said that he was immersed in study in high school and rarely considered other things. His sister who graduated from this police academy told him that if nothing unexpected happened, he could solve the problem by working, and the study pressure would not be too great. The college entrance examination is in 2022, and the epidemic is not over yet. He remembers that people around him said that it is difficult to find a job, "it is better to do it in one step when applying for volunteers."

According to Southern Weekend, a candidate who scored 672 points this year gave up on attending a prestigious university and chose Zhejiang Police College. He mentioned that the system was the most practical. "It's been a long journey by the time we got to the college entrance examination. Instead of taking the postgraduate entrance examination and the civil service examination later, it's better to do it all at once."

Zhao Junwei from Quanzhou, Fujian, has known this since high school. His parents and relatives all said that it is good to have a regular job and it is stable. It is difficult to find a job now. He scored 529 points in the college entrance examination, 10 points higher than the first-tier line of Fujian's 2023 college entrance examination in physics. He chose to enter a junior college and became a clinical medicine student. When he was in the first year of high school, his teacher asked him to fill in his ideal school. He thought about it and decided to be an elementary school teacher. It would be fun to play with children. He said that many of his friends filled in law, and he heard that being a lawyer is very profitable.

After the college entrance examination, he first applied for a normal university in the early admissions, which was a second-tier university. Unexpectedly, the admission score was 30 points higher than in previous years, so he was not admitted. He then looked at the regular admissions, and his score was only enough for biology and chemistry in non-key universities in other provinces. After checking online, he was scared away by the low employment rate of "pitfall" majors.

His cousin works in a township hospital and told him that the salary is good and sometimes he can take half a month off a month, which he thinks is good. "The ratio of application to admission is often 100:1. A relative failed to find a job after graduating from high school for two or three years." He felt scared. The only place left for the early admission was the Medical College, and he did not hesitate. Before, he had heard from his parents who run a private clinic that there are risks in being a doctor, but now he thinks that after the targeted allocation, the company can help share the burden.

Although he had secured employment, he still couldn't save face. He was in a key class in high school, and he was the only one in the class who went to junior college. When his classmates found out, they were very surprised and kept asking him why he didn't go to college. For two or three weeks, he remained silent or changed the subject. During that time, when he met acquaintances in the neighborhood or his father's friends came to visit and asked him where he was going to study, he was too embarrassed to open his mouth. Later, when the news spread, everyone's first reaction was that he had been rejected. His parents explained: He was a targeted student and was guaranteed a job after graduation.

“Big Learning Perspective”

Yang Rui was persuaded by his family to apply for the local second-tier college with his first-tier score. When filling out the application form, he chose the destination. He thought that with his score, he could stay in his hometown no matter what he chose. However, when the admission result came out, "it was another blow". He was admitted to another county-level city 50 or 60 kilometers away from home. His county needed 5 candidates for physics and history. The lucky one scored 26 points higher than him, and the lowest was 4 points higher than him. What made him even more exaggerated was that this year, their major also admitted a student with nearly 600 points.

This is not an isolated case. On a social platform, a girl from Zhejiang shared that her younger brother scored above the first-line in the college entrance examination.(Note: It is set at 60% of the actual number of candidates as the qualification line for filling in undergraduate and some junior college applications)With only 10 points, he didn't even look at the application form and directly said he wanted to study a certain specialized major in a technical college, "there will be a job after graduation, guaranteed to be assigned, and a career position." She was worried that her brother would be looked down upon by the villagers, but she found out that the popular major only recruited two people, and several girls with higher scores had already applied, so her brother was undoubtedly not selected.

When most people are seeking stability, the admission scores of these targeted majors have risen. Taking Guangdong Province as an example, public data shows that the minimum admission ranking for the public-funded targeted teacher programs of Guangdong Second Normal University and Hanshan Normal University, two second-tier colleges, has increased by more than 4,000 people in multiple majors this year compared to 2023. The application situation for the rural health program of junior colleges is also more popular than last year, and the minimum admission ranking of Guangdong Maoming Health Vocational College has increased by more than 15,000.

Like a kind of inertia, these high-scoring candidates still dare not stop after entering university. Huang Yiru, a girl from a junior college in Fujian, was admitted with her undergraduate score, which was more than 100 points higher than the school's admission score, and she had the highest score in her major of medical imaging technology. But when she started studying, she found that her advantage was not obvious. Her classmates were all diligent and smart, not the "yellow-haired" students who were not doing their jobs properly in her impression. In order to maintain her first place, she asked teachers and seniors for advice at any time. When she couldn't identify bones in the anatomy class, she was so anxious that she downloaded related APPs.

When she first received the admission letter, she was afraid of being questioned and hid at home. Compared with her undergraduate classmates, the gap is obvious. Huang Yiru said that she seized every opportunity to prove her ability, from improving grades and serving as a class committee member to learning to operate instrument buttons and position patients. She did not want to make any mistakes. She plans to take the adult college entrance examination in the future to improve her academic qualifications.

●Huang Yiru took photos and took notes during class. Photo provided by the narrator

Several high-scoring candidates' feelings about the test papers are concentrated in two aspects. One group of students from non-directed majors in the school, who have no definite employment prospects, usually seem to work harder and compete more. Zhao Junwei, a boy from a junior college in Fujian, found that the average score of each subject in the non-directed students' class was more than ten points higher than that of their directed students. The school also has a club called "Self-Discipline Association". According to him, the club is used to supervise students, and participants come to get scholarships.

After joining the club, not only did he not come home late, he also had to stand guard at the school gate after evening self-study to catch students who came home late. Zhao Junwei was admitted to this junior college with the second highest score in the school. At first, he joined this club for credits and spent a month or two. He stood guard from 10pm to 11pm twice a week. Within a month, he quit the club - it was too tiring and he couldn't compete with non-directed students.

Another source of pressure came from his former high school classmates. Zhao Junwei learned that his classmates who had been admitted to a first-tier university were memorizing their lessons every day, and he applied for the second-tier university where he was not admitted.NormalYang Rui started to strive for outstanding graduates in his freshman year. Several of Yang Rui's friends were admitted to better universities than him, 211, double first-class, and first-class universities. They were busy with their studies and planned to take postgraduate entrance exams or start businesses in the future. This made him quickly give up the idea of ​​lying down and continue to work hard to prove himself.

He plans to take all the certificates that are not needed for graduation. According to Yang Rui, his school will issue certificates in the senior year, so he can go to work in the contracted unit without having to obtain teaching qualifications or looking at his GPA. He still studies like he did in high school, never skipping classes, listening carefully, and joining clubs to improve his GPA. At the end of his freshman year, he was in the top three in his class.

He arranged his four years of university like this: pass English level 4 in freshman year, English level 6 and Putonghua certificate in sophomore year, teacher qualification and computer level 2 in junior year. Other aspects should not be left behind either, read more books, learn teachers' professional knowledge, computers, philosophy, psychology, office, PS... "I used a broad view of learning throughout every day of my university life."

Another solution

Yang Rui spent half a semester adjusting his mindset. His goal of going to college was suddenly realized, and he felt confused and had difficulty adapting. He used the word "hard" to describe his high school years, saying that he worked harder than most people and studied every day except for eating and sleeping. He read extracurricular books during the winter and summer vacations, which were also related to the subject. Everyone went through this, and now his college roommates are all playing games and don't even participate in sports activities.

He considers himself to be a motivated person. His high school is the best in the city and the province. He comes from a poor family and it was not easy for him to get into the school from a small place. From the first year of high school, they participated in the joint examination of the top four high schools in each city in northern Guangdong. In the third year of high school, Foshan No. 1 High School was added to the joint examination. Every exam will have four score lines: the first-tier line, the 211 line, the 985 line and the Tsinghua and Peking University line.

The school has one day off per week. He has to arrive at school before 7:15 in the morning and finish his self-study at 22:00 in the evening. He goes back home and studies until midnight. According to his description, his family often says "our family will have a good future", and he shoulders this sentence. He is serious and ranks 15th among the 59 students in the class.

After one year in college, Yang Rui still felt ashamed and didn't tell his classmates that he came from the best high school in the city. Thinking of the honor roll, he still felt lost. He didn't get to go to South China Normal University. His way of dealing with it was "selective amnesia" and focusing on the present. He once thought that after being admitted, he would give up and get away from the frequent exams and studies.

●Yang Rui (left) performs at the university. Photo provided by the narrator

Lying flat is the state that these students mentioned most frequently. They suddenly had the "freedom" they had been looking forward to. They could play ball, exercise, play games, travel on holidays, and arrange what they wanted to do. Their high school classmates envied them for their stability. But soon, they were pushed by exams one after another.

Zhao Junwei, a college student, and the first person in front of him(College Entrance Examination Score)Playing everywhere. The first student couldn't get up in the morning, almost didn't attend the 8 o'clock class, failed the exams for a long time and his parents were called in, and he almost dropped out of school. They didn't talk about why they got in with high scores, nor did they talk about the future. Zhao Junwei heard that after working, he had to pass the assistant physician qualification exam within a few years, otherwise he would have to pay double the tuition and living expenses for three years of junior college. He was worried that he would not pass the exam, but he couldn't help playing, and fell into a repeated contradiction.

A male student in the police academy had to take shooting classes after entering the academy. His classmates were all good at shooting, but he missed the target after two weeks of training, which was a blow. As soon as he finished his sophomore year, he began to prepare for the public security joint examination in his senior year - police academy students took the exam together and competed for positions, and those who did well had priority in choosing positions. There were a lot of things to read and memorize, and he would have to do internships in the future, so he had to prepare in advance. He couldn't answer whether he liked this job, "I am a salted fish, I don't have any dreams."

Being a reporter, teacher, police officer, and living a colorful life - college girl Huang Yiru had an ideal in high school. Both her parents are teachers and hope that she will have a stable life. In order to find a job, she became a medical student, which she had never considered before. There is still one year to graduation. She has a stable job as a doctor in a township health center, while the seniors who graduated from college and returned home can't find any jobs. The 211 classmates who are valued by the teachers are gradually realizing that the future is uncertain. But now, she still occasionally blames herself for choosing a targeted major for this reality, and she is already thinking that after the 5-year contract expires, there is a high probability that she will leave.

Yang Rui later set a new goal - to become a good teacher. Under this big goal, he gradually divided it into multiple small problems and solved them one by one. He participated in the school's volunteer teaching activities and attended classes in primary schools. Although there was no moment in his heart that "made me feel that I was born for the education career."

Yang Rui said that his greatest joy in high school was to solve the questions on the test paper faster than others, but now it has become solving various problems in life. His home is underground, which is made up of several storage rooms. It is not decorated and is very dark during the day. Everyone in the family said that if you make money and buy a house in the future, our family will be better. He has to live far away from home and buy a car. These things are waiting for him realistically.

(At the request of the narrator, all characters in this article are pseudonyms.)

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