Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“I support this!”
“The numbers should have been limited a long time ago!”
“The unspoken rules and trends of studying abroad have already been formed into a fixed model. A supply chain exists between our country and other countries; it’s specially targeting the money from our students! I don’t agree that our students should go abroad in such huge numbers.”
“Haha, my company has hired one returning overseas graduate. He dared to ask for a $30,000 monthly salary. In the end, he still came to work for us even though he was only offered $5,000. But we’re still making a ‘loss.’ He’s not even as good as an intern at a $3,000 salary.”
“Students can go to good foreign universities, but they shouldn’t go to those no-name, disreputable ones. Those useless qualifications will not pull the wool over anyone’s eyes.”
The majority of netizens expressed support for the Department of Education’s decision; however, a vocal portion of parents found the new policy unacceptable and strongly opposed it.
“My child has his own legs and feet; he can study wherever he wants to. The government should keep their hands off!”
“What’s the use of staying in the country with the quality of our education?”
“Since a long time ago, the Z country’s education has been beyond hope. Why can’t we vote with our feet?!”
“This is the only light left in this dark place. Are you going to kill it too?”
These parents were extremely angry and agitated, and they expressed their dissatisfaction via various channels and methods, demanding that the Department of Education reverse their decision immediately. The vast numbers of netizens, though, shook their heads in response to these parents.
“The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”
“The Department of Education has clearly explained the reasons for the limitations, yet these parents still choose to ignore them. Their yearning for a more beautiful life overseas cannot be curbed.”
“The department is not stopping children from studying abroad. If they want to do that, it’s easy. They can go to a top foreign university and give up their citizenship. They have a choice. What’s the fuss?”
“Haha, even those who like to kiss the asses of anything foreign also know that it’s easy to give up Z country citizenship but extremely difficult to get it back. This must what those parents oppose the most.”
“It’s a utopia overseas. Dear parents, stop hesitating. Get foreign citizenships for your entire family. Your life will be so wonderful over there.”
But, for unknown reasons, those parents stayed silent on the choice of giving up their citizenships. None of them wanted to talk about this topic.
Moreover, many students had been born in the 00s and 10s and were very unlike the generation that their parents had come from. These students had their own way of thinking and their own opinions. Based on their experience, growing up in the Z country had not been any worse than in other countries. They were the generation who had the most confidence in themselves.
This younger generation was not particularly understanding of their parents’ stubborn insistence of sending them overseas. When the Department of Education made the announcement, these children had quickly gotten ready to present their cases. As the two generations tried to persuade each other, many agitated parents gradually gave in.
There was, however, a country in the Southern Hemisphere that was panicking. They wailed as if they were in deep mourning, with one person posting, “We strongly oppose this! Stop this mistake immediately!”
The netizens were overjoyed when they learned the nationality of this protestor.
“Ah, isn’t this from Paper Cat? Are they having a f*cking mental breakdown again?”
“More than 300,000 students left our country to study abroad in Paper Cat last year. Through various expenditures by our students, that country earned a whopping 26 billion! That is 2% of their GDP! It’d be weird if they weren’t panicking.”
“The quality of education in Paper Cat is the worst. They have the most questionable universities of all nations. I don’t understand why people are still going there in droves.”
“Everyone, go take a look at the responses by their keyboard warriors. They’re rejoicing across the board. Every single one of them is thanking our Department of Education. They’re happy like children.”
“That’s right, as long as they’re happy. They don’t even care about the money anymore. It must be hard for them to be so two-faced. Having frequent mental breakdowns is not good for the body.”
As countless netizens mocked Paper Cat, they agreed that the hysteria of Paper Cat’s government and the collective joy of their keyboard warriors brought much happiness to the world.
…
On June 6th, the National Senior High School Entrance Exam was about to begin. The Department of Education announced their plan of action in advance: They were eliminating the category “top senior high schools” and adding the category “vocational schools.” This would solve the two main issues.
Although some parents remained stubborn and wanted their children to continue studying no matter what, the majority of students as well as their parents had calmed down and poured all their attention into the upcoming exam.
On the 8th of June, the senior high school exam ended without a glitch. The most outstanding performance in the exam had been by Little Star Third Gen, produced by Xing Hai Technologies. The performance of its hardware was eight times better than that of Second Gen, and Little Star Third Gen continued its grand slam across the nation in the mathematics, physics, and chemistry exams.
With the upgraded intelligence level of the third generation, Little Star’s reading and comprehension abilities had been greatly strengthened. Excluding essay writing, it was able to secure high marks in the language, English, and humanities exams. Only the essay writing component was based on free expression, but all questions in the language and English exams had standard answers. This even included questions like “What does this tell us about the central ideas of the author?” and similar. For the most part, they all had fixed answers, and now the Little Star learning machine could even offer an answer in the general ballpark.
This was rather awkward.
The National Senior High School Entrance Exam had ended, and it could be said that the Department of Education had provided satisfactory solutions. But what about the upcoming National College Entrance Examination? Opinions varied.
“Universities are totally different from high schools! A good university is a good university and bad university is just plain bad.”
“This is true of universities all over the world. They want to distribute the resources of the universities evenly such that it’s fair to all the top students. This kind of reform is not only impossible to realize, it’s also unreal! It will only lead to chaos and the ruin of all universities.”
“The real challenge is about to begin.”
“The exam has to be kept fair, but at the same time it should be able to let the top students be admitted into the ideal university of their choice.”
“The result of this challenging issue would depend on how the Department of Education chooses to tackle it.”
If this was not dealt with in an appropriate manner, disaster would ensue.
…
At Happiness Court, the family sat in a circle on the sofas in the living room. Chen Gang, He Li, and Su Yun turned their gazes toward Chen Jin.
“Son, the senior high school exam might have been easy, but the college entry exam will be more difficult, as its purpose is to select for talent. Students will be filtered into a top, second-rate, third-rate, or average talent tier. Now, many third-year senior high schoolers have improved their grades, and we can see from the scores that numbers in the top-two tiers of talent have swelled, but the number of good universities has declined. These students will be unwilling to attend average universities and, unfortunately, it would be impossible to transform these average universities into top-tier universities overnight. The investment needed for that to happen is simply too terrifying.”
Chen Gang frowned and asked, “How should this conflict be resolved?”
In this scenario, the college entry exam could not be as easily resolved as the senior high school exam. The college entry exam was a test to separate the good, the average, and the weak students. It was a competition of intelligence. Each student would be accepted into a university that was suitable for their level based on their scores on the exam, which tested the strength of each student on an individual basis. This would force them to recognize the competitive nature of the world in no uncertain terms.
Therefore, the college entry exam was critical, and one could not risk making one mistake. However, due to the significant increase in top students, this had created a shortage of good universities.
Everyone looked to Chen Jin, who stated, “It’s easy to resolve.”
Chen Jin grinned and stated, “There’s no need to change anything about the universities; instead, we’ll change the content of the college entry exam by adding some testing that will further assess the actual abilities of each candidate. This will widen the gap between the scores, and all students should be able to get into a university that is suitable for them in the end.”
Shocked, Chen Gang asked, “How should it be modified?”
Chen Jin glanced at Su Yun and shook his head. “The Department of Education has requested that I keep it a secret for now. You’ll know it when the time comes.”