Studying machines: China secondary schools impose ‘don’t look up’ rule in class to stop distractions and improve study
- Intense competition means schools in China are seeking ways to force better performance from students to secure top results
- Some schools get teachers to spy on classes with eye-peeping holes to check if students are sleeping or playing with pens
The theory of Neijuan, involution in English, which argues competition in modern workplaces is futile and counterproductive as more people compete for the same number of jobs, has appeared in Chinese secondary schools.
The concept is becoming increasingly popular in mainland secondary schools, particularly where students vie for limited admission placements.
Intense competition means schools are compelled to develop more solutions to force them to study more diligently than ever to secure university placements for their students.
This is where measures like the recently popular “heads-up rate” come into play. This behavioural measure has been adopted in many secondary schools across China. It counts how many students raise their heads in class when unexpected noises occur to measure their concentration levels.
Wang Yimei, a secondary school student from northern China’s Hebei province, told online news site Meiri Renwu harsh punishments had accompanied the implementation of the heads-up rate in her school.
“If you’re caught looking up, it’s considered a violation of rules. Once caught, you have to stand as a punishment for the entire day. From 8am until 10pm.”
Some teachers reportedly test students’ concentration by deliberately making noises, such as door knocks and other sounds and students caught looking up will be punished.
The expansion of these performance measurements in secondary schools has led to growing public concern and online debate about their merit.
In an online post, one unidentified student questioned whether heads-up tracking was potentially dangerous as it contradicts spontaneous human reflexes such as upon hearing a sudden noise, we instinctively pay attention as a survival trait.
“We are conditioned as humans to look up reflexively. However, I tell myself not to look up when I hear such noises. Even if the school is collapsing, don’t raise your head,” she wrote.
There have already been consequences from such conditioned behaviour on the mainland. When an arson attack hit a secondary school in Shandong province in eastern China in 2016, students who heard the explosions hesitated to flee, fearing it would violate the school’s “heads-up rate” policy, reported News 117.
Despite cases like this, educational institutions persist in the application of approaches like the no heads-up rule while pushing students to reach unprecedented limits in their studies to aid in securing a university place to guarantee future employment. The reality is that the measures do nothing to resolve the issues caused by not enough jobs for the number of graduates China turns out each year.
According to Goldman Sachs, the number of graduates in China majoring in sports and education increased by more than 20 per cent between 2018 and 2021. However, hiring demand in these sectors slumped over the same period.
Unemployment among 16 to 24-year-olds is looming as a significant social and economic issue in China. Just this month, the government blocked the release of the youth unemployment figures for July, following a record high of 21.3 per cent for June.
Most schools in China retain the rigid, inflexible view that students must attend a reputable university in order to get a decent job and have any hope of a prosperous future. Some institutions have taken to managing students using military-style precision and disciplined structure, removing any non-academic activities from school.
For instance, a number of schools force girls to get buzz-cut hairstyles as it is believed long hair leads to hair decorating and distracts them from studying.
Some schools even delegated teachers to spy on classes using eye-peeping holes during lessons to check if students are sleeping, playing with pens or shaking their legs.
On Zhihu, the Chinese equivalent of Quora, a question on whether this educational paradigm shift has permanently affected students for the worse had attracted almost 1,000 responses at the time of writing.
The top-ranked answer was from a girl recently granted admission to a Project 211 institution in Beijing after her school implemented a strict regime with many elements of neijuan. Universities that are included in this project are all high-ranking in China and the world.
“Undoubtedly, the effects of the school have left a deep mark. Whenever I get less impressive results, I feel ashamed. Also, I live with persistent guilt if I’m not constantly studying,” the girl wrote in the post.
“However, life is long. Although I’m still badly affected after graduating from secondary school many years ago, I firmly believe that one day I can overcome this, and I wish the same for all of you.”
