Problems in Chinese Education System and steps taken to improve the Essay

Problems in Chinese Education System and steps taken to improve the system - Essay Example Nine years of education is made compulsory in China at preliminary and junior secondary level. However, there is very low government spending on education. Teaching resources are not sufficient as the enrolments in schools. China’s National Auditing Office recently released the 2003 auditing results of 18 universities in China. It was found out that there were violations of financial regulations in these universities. Furthermore, when university professor Mr. Sun Guangwen and former secretary Lin Mu were interviewed about China’s education system, they identified three major problems which are unequal opportunity, expensive tuition and difficult standards for admission. There are also issues regarding course material and teaching methods of China’s education system.... ccording to survey of China’s Academy of Social Sciences, the average education related fees of universities, high schools and elementary schools account for 30 to 60 percent of a family’s income. To the low income families residing in China who accounts up to 80 percent of Chinas population, education fees are a secondary expense to food expense (Yue & Hong, 2006). Lin Mu has identified an emerging concept of â€Å"education commercialization† in China. Schools are now a commercial business; they only keep raising their fees and emptying poor family’s pockets. Even the free schools now charge some amount of money. Professor Sun regards commercialization as wrong and has drawbacks. Commercialization is based on making money. This increases burden towards students. Schools are also required to pay bonuses to teachers. Some schools pay really high bonuses. There are three levels in a school. The first level includes the president, vice president, secretary a nd vice secretary, deans and assisted deans. These people are paid 50,000 yuan or US$ 6000 per year. The second level of staff is paid 40,000 yuan or US$ 5000 and the third level is paid 30,000 yuan or US$ 4000 per year. All this money is coming from students (Yue & Hong, 2006). Through commercialization, universities and colleges have started branding their institutes which attracts students so that they can get better jobs later. Another way for these institutes to make money is by offering short courses, training classes or post graduate certificate programs. These are affordable as the teachers only care about money. As a result, the quality of education is seriously suffering (Yue & Hong, 2006). An expert once estimated and came on a conclusion, based on the ratio and people’s income, the expense of

Lifestyle and Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Lifestyle and Health - Essay Example This is so for the different elements of the physical body generally work in harmony with each other to maintain a good health, but this can only be possible if a healthy lifestyle is maintained (World Book Encyclopedia, 1994). Positive lifestyle factors can hugely improve the state of health of the individual. The World Book Dictionary defines health as that state of being well or not sick. Hodal (2005) further asserts that this should also encompass the optimal state where the physical, mental and social well being of the individual is attained. There should be a more holistic approach in considering health. There should be an interrelation among the different aspects of the human body, including the lifestyle, to achieve the optimum state of health (Hodal, 2005). Everyone has always been told to eat a healthy diet. What does this proposition really entail Having a healthy diet means eating the right food and feeding the body with the essential minerals, vitamins, proteins, fats and carbohydrates that are crucial for an individual to properly function (Hodal, 2005). Food is needed to support the body. Food is needed to make one healthy. Food is also part of the lifestyle of any individual. This is why any food, particularly eating the healthy diet, is one big chunk in the positive lifestyle factors and a necessary element to fight off nutritional diseases like obesity or extreme fatness (World Book Encyclopedia, 1994). Being active and mobile are also essential to health. It was declared not too long ago that one epidemic that is threatening Asians is the diabetes (Zabriskie, 2002). Diabetes, once it has invaded the body, cannot anymore be eradicated; the adverse effects, however, can still be avoided (Zabriskie, 2002). The best solution so far, to control the disease is to have an active. It was further pointed out by Zabriskie (2002) that having a healthy diet, lots of exercise, seeking regular check ups and controlling the weight are important elements in the lifestyle of a person, especially for the diabetic. It is truly undeniable that a healthy lifestyle is needed to improve on the health and whole being of the individual. In much the same way, the negative lifestyle factors also have a major impact on the health of an individual. It was shown that there are behavioural and social issues that can really threaten the healthy state of the body of the individual (Lyons and Langille, 2000). Before, society is concerned with the threat of infectious diseases; today the main concern is the hazard of leading unhealthy lifestyles (World Book Encyclopedia, 1994). There are many negative factors that people imbibed in their daily life like smoking, overeating, drinking, lack of sleep and lack of exercise. Such stressful behaviours can affect the overall body of the person and lead to ailments and health problems (National Women's Health Resource Center, 2006). Obesity is one health problem that people today are facing. This is a significant problem that has come about because of unhealthy and poor diet. It was found that the average American diet is high in salt, sugar and fat, characteristic of foods that encourage obesity (Smith and Pergola, 2002). Experts also declared that there is a sudden threat of diabetes in Asia and it has been tagged as the 'silent killer' (Zabriskie, 2002). This was generally attributed to the drastic and negative lifestyle change among Asians. Eating mainly Western cuisine, drinking