Draw Clear Lines of Distinction and Handle Correctly the Promotion Rate in Education

Abstract

The promotion rate in education is a phenomenon produced by the system of promotion examinations. At the moment there is no better method anywhere in the world to substitute for the system of promotion examinations. Therefore, as long as the current system exists, and as long as it remains impossible for every student to be promoted to a higher level, there will naturally be a problem with the rate of promotion, and it needs to be handled correctly. We cannot achieve the desired results if we employ a simplistic method to handle this matter, hoping to resolve the problem of one-sided pursuit of [a higher] rate of promotion. Such things as reproaching and blaming the schools excessively, or even blaming the key schools for things such as suicides, desertion of schooling, or illnesses on the part of individual students, have caused disgruntlement among comrades working at the schools. Their point of view is that during the ten years of internal chaos, there was a deluge everywhere of the "theory that studying is of no use," and the growth of an entire generation was adversely affected and delayed; only after the chaos had been cleared out, when the situation was rectified and the college entrance examination system restored, did a generally good situation such as that we have now on the education front occur. If we do not cherish this situation, and instead insist on criticizing people for pursuing a higher promotion rate, who will pay attention to doing a good job of teaching? Some directors of departments and bureaus of education are filled with a sense of conflict and contradiction. On the one hand, they are aware of the widespread phenomenon of onesided pursuit of promotion rates and understand the severe consequences. On the other hand, however, they dare not prohibit or severely restrict such a situation, fearing that to do so would hurt the teachers' feelings and affect their enthusiasm for teaching. Often their attitude is to keep one eye open and the other closed; they do not interfere even where they ought to.