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text/yi zhuo

"when schools from other counties and cities come to exchange ideas and conduct research, we can introduce anything, except competition!"

this is a request made by the principal of a high school in a prefecture-level city in central china at a middle-level leadership meeting. it means that when other schools come to investigate the school's teaching experience, school management, teacher incentives, logistics services, etc., everything can be said openly, but not a word about competition. this shows the importance of competition to the development of high schools. it also reflects that under the current college entrance examination system, those who win the competition win the world, and it can really be a winner-takes-all. so what is the essence of competition? what is the relationship with the college entrance examination? these important issues are worth studying and discussing.

one,competition: another track

the competitions mentioned here refer to the olympic competitions in five disciplines: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and information. they are divided into four levels: municipal, provincial, national, and international. the difficulty of different levels of competitions varies, and the value of winning places varies. the competition levels of different provinces also vary greatly. generally speaking, provinces with strong competition strength can have a certain advantage in the strong-base enrollment plan of tsinghua and peking university by winning the first or second prize in the province. if you can get a gold medal in the national competition, you will have the opportunity to enter the national training team, and then you can basically be sure to be admitted to tsinghua and peking university. in provinces with weak competition strength, the rankings in the provincial competitions lack gold content, and it is even more difficult to get a ranking in the national competition. for example, yunnan, guangxi, guizhou, etc. basically cannot rely on competition channels to impact tsinghua and peking university schools.

in the earliest times, competitions and college entrance examinations were two completely independent things. competitions were actually mainly to satisfy students' interests, with the aim of enhancing students' learning ability and selecting students with outstanding talents for targeted training. in the late 1990s, students began to win awards internationally, and the olympic games became part of teachers' teaching achievements. schools in some provinces began to pay attention to this matter. when students won awards in international olympic games, these schools had the effect of famous schools. zhenhai and hangzhou no. 2 in zhejiang province started to hold competitions relatively early, and their results were very outstanding around 2005-2015, but at that time they were not on a large scale, and not everyone realized the importance of competitions. in the reform of independent enrollment of colleges and universities about ten years ago, the impact of competitions on the college entrance examination, especially in the admission to famous universities such as tsinghua university and peking university, was significantly enhanced. at that time, in zhejiang province, the second place in the province's competition results could get extra points, and the first place in the province or entering the national team could be recommended to tsinghua university and peking university. later, the policy gradually tightened and students had to enter the national training team to be recommended to tsinghua university and peking university. however, the fact that competition results have an advantage in independent enrollment of colleges and universities has not changed, and it has been retained in the form of the strong foundation plan and the "three-in-one" enrollment plan.

in fact, the current competition has become another independent track besides the college entrance examination. whether it is direct admission, the strong foundation plan or the "three-in-one" admissions in some provinces, competition has become a must for participating in the independent enrollment of top domestic universities. whoever seizes the opportunity of the competition can gain an advantage in the competition for admission to top universities. in addition to the fact that winning a gold medal in the national competition and entering the national training team can directly guarantee admission to peking university and tsinghua university, good competition results also have great advantages in the strong foundation plan, "three-in-one" and other college admissions. for example, peking university and tsinghua university will set strong baselines for each province based on the candidates' college entrance examination scores. after the college entrance examination, the shortlisted candidates will take the school's "school entrance examination", which is divided into a written test and an interview. the difficulty of the written test questions is between the college entrance examination and the competition. it is easier to get high scores with the support of competition training. in addition, if students have competition results above the first in the province, they can also achieve good results in the school winter camp and interviews, and sometimes they can even get full marks directly. finally, colleges and universities generally add up and convert the students' college entrance examination scores (85%) and the school entrance examination scores (15%). because the college entrance examination scores of students who can enter the strong foundation are actually very small, the key is to look at the school entrance examination scores, and ultimately admission is basically based on the school entrance examination ranking. this is why the industry's evaluation of the strong foundation plan has a saying that "15% leverages 85%." peking university, tsinghua university, fudan university, shanghai jiaotong university, university of science and technology of china and other universities also have a "three-in-one" admissions program for zhejiang province, which selects students based on comprehensive academic proficiency test scores, college entrance examination scores and school examination scores (comprehensive quality evaluation). if candidates have good competition results, they can also have a great advantage in the "three-in-one" school examination (only interview).

in short, domestic universities, especially top universities such as tsinghua and peking university, are increasingly favoring students who have achieved excellent results in competitions. this is related to the fact that universities hope to retain a certain degree of independent enrollment power, and it is also related to the fact that the current new college entrance examination reform has weakened the selection and differentiation function and the insufficient number of science course selections. universities must find another way to select the talents they need. when competition becomes an independent track and becomes more and more important in college admissions, the result is that it continues to squeeze the enrollment ratio of universities such as tsinghua and peking university, that is, it will become more and more difficult to get into tsinghua and peking university by relying on the college entrance examination. according to public statistics, in 2023, tsinghua university will have 29 students enrolled in the general batch in zhejiang province, and the number of special enrollments will reach 125, including 72 students in the strong foundation plan, 18 students recommended by the competition, and 35 students selected independently. in the same year, peking university will have 45 students enrolled in the general batch in zhejiang province, and the number of special enrollments will reach 102, including 66 students in the strong foundation plan, 24 students recommended by the competition, and 12 students selected independently. the two top universities, led by tsinghua university and peking university, mainly recruit students through competition-based admission and the strong foundation plan, of which competition-based admission accounts for 12.57%, the strong foundation plan accounts for 40.35%, and unified enrollment accounts for 21.64%. if we look at the national scope, the proportion of students admitted by tsinghua and peking university through competitions and the strong foundation plan exceeds 1/3. the stronger the competition strength of a province, the higher this proportion will be, and more and more provinces and high schools will have to pay attention to competitions.

two,from adventure to industry: the alienation of the competition system

obviously, at a time when competition results are becoming increasingly important for admission to prestigious universities such as tsinghua and peking university, high schools in provinces, cities and counties will naturally attach great importance to and increase investment. so which regions and which levels of schools have the competitive strength to maximize their competitive advantages? which schools want to participate in competitions but do not have the conditions and are anxious? through research, it was found that the more economically developed coastal provinces, such as jiangsu and zhejiang, have higher competition levels, while economically underdeveloped regions such as guangxi and yunnan have weaker competition strength. within the same province, the more provincial capital cities schools have better competition results, while the more county-level schools are difficult to train competition students, and are at a disadvantage in the current competition system.

the fundamental reason why there are such differences in competition ability among regions and schools is that the investment in competition is very huge and it is a very expensive project. in other words, only schools with strong financial strength and sufficient educational resources are able to participate in the competition system.

first of all, the salary of subject competition coaches is extremely high, especially for coaches with gold medals. in many schools, the salary of coaches is strictly confidential. the current market average annual salary is over 1 million, far exceeding the salary of university professors. obviously, only super high schools in developed regions can afford such conditions. in fact, hubei's early competition training strength was very strong, especially in mathematics, chemistry and other subjects. later, some eastern provinces spent a lot of effort to recruit competition coaches from hubei, and now it has become the region with the best competition results in the country;

secondly, to participate in competitions, you also need good students. objectively speaking, competitions do have certain thresholds. they have high requirements for students' comprehensive qualities, especially perseverance and intelligence. at the same time, it also requires families to have financial conditions to support students' competition training. therefore, if you want to achieve good results in competitions, you must select the best students in the province or the city and train them. super high schools are most capable of doing this.

finally, competitions are also related to the school's overall educational resources and strength. as mentioned before, the current competition system has become a track for college entrance examinations, and competition results have a direct impact on the impact on prestigious schools. so it is not like before that only talented students participate in competitions, but the top students all want to participate in competitions to improve their chances of going to top universities. therefore, these super high schools cannot give up education in other subjects in high school when organizing competitions. in other words, if you want to maximize your competitive advantage, you must do a good job in high school subject education and competition training at the same time, which is most beneficial for those students who want to follow the strong foundation plan. it is for this reason that under the current competition system, only super high schools in economically developed regions and provincial capitals have the foundation to participate in competitions. conversely, these schools have monopolized the competition system and maximized the benefits brought by the competition.

the reason why the competition system requires such a high investment is, on the one hand, because it has high returns and controllable risks, and on the other hand, because there are actually very few circles that specialize in competitions. they are mainly competition coaches in various disciplines and students who have passed the competitions. after graduating from college, they will work in the competition industry again. as long as they get some directions for setting questions, industry experts can quickly figure out a lot of information from them. this has quickly alienated the competition into a circle industry with a monopoly nature. whoever has the ability to hire a gold medal coach and absorb top students for training can achieve outstanding competition results. during the survey, a high school principal said: "it costs 200,000 to train a student from tsinghua university or peking university, and it costs 2 million to train a gold medalist in a competition!" it can be seen that the investment in competitions is not something that ordinary high schools can adapt to.

we have interviewed many principals of county schools who are very helpless about the competition system. on the one hand, the proportion of competitions, strong foundations and other independent enrollments in the current admission ratio of tsinghua and peking university is getting larger and larger. it is out of reach to get into the top schools of tsinghua and peking university with bare scores, so competitions are necessary; but on the other hand, the investment in competitions is very large, not only good teachers but also good students must be obtained, and at the same time, high school subject teaching and training cannot be left behind. in this dilemma, some high schools either choose to purchase services of market structures such as "cultivating top students" and "cultivating excellent students". these institutions connect college teachers, competition coaches and high schools, and train a class for one to two days a week. the content is more difficult than competitions but mainly focuses on strong foundations. it costs 1 to 2 million yuan a year. or they send top students to good schools or even super high schools outside the province for "training on their behalf". it is not uncommon for high schools in central provinces to send students to high schools in eastern provinces for training on their behalf.

in the past, competitions were, to some extent, an adventure. they were indeed aimed at students with strong talents and interests in a certain subject. they were trained from elementary school and junior high school, similar to the relationship between a master and an apprentice. the coach would select the seedlings and continue to study the subject in depth, and even other subjects would be abandoned. in the middle, only 3 or 4 people were left. finally, they had to compete in the olympic games. if they could get good results, everyone would be happy. if they didn't do well, they could only blame themselves for their bad luck. because of the adventurous nature of competitions in the past, high returns and high risks were balanced. if you put all your efforts into competitions, it might end up in vain. therefore, very few high schools and families would focus on competitions. during a survey of a high school in guangxi, the teacher said that in the past, "college entrance examinations were the main focus, which led to competitions." now, it has become "competitions are the main focus, which radiates to college entrance examinations." in other words, the benefits of competitions are still very high, but the risks are controllable. the reason behind this is that competitions have been industrialized. as long as you have the financial ability to do it, it will not be bad, and the implicit educational inequality will be widened.

three,learning in advance and disenchantment with competition

in the minds of the public, competition is a track for extremely smart geniuses to compete, and has little to do with ordinary students. the competition system is indeed designed to screen students with talent and interest in these subjects earlier and more accurately. in other words, competition is for a very small number of individuals, and should be completely separate from the college entrance examination system that faces and screens the general population. however, the actual situation is that almost all provincial super high schools have competition classes, and the top 1,000 to 1,500 students in the province will at least participate in competition training. even if they are not for recommendation, they can get extra points in the strong foundation and self-recruitment programs. the original intention of the competition has deviated.

furthermore, the competition is not as mysterious as everyone imagines. objectively speaking, the difficulty of the competition is indeed very high, and there is a threshold for the comprehensive quality and intelligence of students, but the form of the competition is still examinations and questions. as long as it is an exam, it can be trained. in other words, the competition does not test students' innovation ability, but still problem-solving ability. taking the physics subject of the competition as an example, we interviewed a competition coach in a high school in an eastern province. he has coached more than 10 provincial first prizes and national silver medals, and many students have been admitted to peking university, tsinghua university and the university of science and technology of china. according to him, the knowledge points tested in the competition are still the classical physics knowledge from more than 100 years ago, but the questions are becoming more and more sophisticated. the so-called sophistication means that the questions will have many twists and turns, but in the final analysis, it still tests knowledge, not innovation and problem-solving ability.

this means that competitions are largely a form of advance learning, that is, taking university knowledge to high school to learn in advance. this is why many super high schools start to select the best students from junior high school, because it is too late to participate in competitions in the first year of high school. you must finish learning high school knowledge in the third year of junior high school or during the summer vacation before you have time to compete. in this way, competitions essentially become learning university knowledge in advance, and then in the college entrance examination or self-recruitment, they will form a dimensionality reduction attack on other students who have not participated in competition training. this dimensionality reduction attack may not be caused by talent, but the result of advance learning, student involution and family support. last year, a junior high school survey in a county in zhejiang province was conducted. the daughter of the school's office director graduated from a famous high school in the province. she finished high school mathematics in the summer vacation of the third year of junior high school, and then the whole class was taken to wenzhou for training. at the beginning, she could only score 20 points in competition mathematics, but later she could get 80 or 90 points through training. in fact, it is still the principle of test-oriented training.

in short, the institutional boundary between the current competition system and the college entrance examination system has begun to blur. top universities are increasingly favoring students selected by the competition system and do not trust the college entrance examination. but in fact, the competition and the college entrance examination select the same group of students, that is, the best batch of top students. the reason why these top students are selected in the competition system is mainly because of advance learning and advance screening. the question is, since talents can be selected through the college entrance examination, why use the high-cost and high-expense competition system to select them? the difference is nothing more than testing high school knowledge or undergraduate knowledge. the result of the competition kidnapping the college entrance examination is that the institutional cost of the country's talent selection is getting higher and higher, the competition system is becoming more and more industrialized, and the educational burden on schools and families is also increasing.

while most of the county schools in china are in a declining trend, super high schools with abundant educational resources are constantly tied to the competition system and mutually reinforced, while county schools want to participate in the competition but are not allowed to. currently, there are about eight channels to enter tsinghua and peking university, namely, college entrance examination, competition, strong foundation plan, western plan, special plan, high-level athletes (art troupe), dual-enrollment pilots and special talents. ordinary county schools can only choose college entrance examination, competition and strong foundation. if competition and strong foundation occupy too much enrollment ratio, then the development space of county schools will become smaller and smaller. the competition system needs to be completely untied from the college entrance examination, and must be de-industrialized and return to the laws of education in order to effectively achieve educational equity and reduce the educational burden on society and families.

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