Question: What changes took place in education in your country over the past decade?

　　过去十年,你所在的国家教育发生了怎样的变化?

　　Answer:

　　Well, everything is changing, so is education.

　　The most important change that took place over the past decade is this.

　　1. increased admission

　　It seems to me that more and more people are now able to go to college while in the past the competition was much stronger. College admission is opening up, and this is a direct result of the state policy. The consequence is that many students who have not reached the level of university education are also allowed to sit in the college classroom, therefore the quality of education has been declining.

　　2. master’s degree / overseas education

　　It is because this problem that an increasing number of people are pursuing more education after college graduation. These options include master’s program and possibly overseas education, just like what I’m doing right now. We’re fed up with the boring routine life in college, and we’re fighting for a better future for ourselves.

　　3. increased tuition

　　Unfortunately, not every child would have the opportunity to continue their education after college. Why? Simply because going to school is so costly.

　　The tuition has been almost tripled over the past decade and this presented serious financial pressure that some families cannot handle. So some of my classmates have to drop out just because their families ran short of money. Human tragedy! I’m lucky. My mom and dad are making enough money, so I can even go to college in Canada. But I’m not taking this for granted, I’ll be eternally grateful to them.

　　4. Private training institution

　　Wherever there’s need, there’s a solution. As more families realized the importance of making education investment in their kids, training demands has been soaring over the past 10 years. Private training institutions such as New Oriental flourished. So as long as you want you will always find a place to study and a class schedule that fits you. Opportunities for personal improvement are many.

　　Question: What change do you foresee in the next 50 years? 将来50年教育会发生什么变化?

　　如何答 ”将来” 题目

　　Wow. 50 years is such a long time. I don’t even know if I will still be around in half a century’s time. So this question is kind of challenging. Nobody knows for sure what’s gonna happen in the future, right, because the future is unpredictable. But, let me try to answer this question.

　　1. Education will be a social welfare without any charges.

　　Maybe this is just a Utopian Dream. But I strongly believe, as our society moves forward, education will eventually become a social benefit. Families will not have to pay for education of the kids, because when the kids receive good education, the society will be benefited as it receives a continual wave of talents. It’s only fair that the society take out some of the tax revenue and use it on education for young people. Since tuition is no longer a problem, more and more people can finally all go to school. This is what I call “educational equality”.

　　2. Education will become less time-consuming.

　　One day I suddenly realized that each and everyone of us spend 20 years or so on education. 20 years! That’s crazy. Those years are probably the best time in our lives. So if you ask me what change do I want to see happen in 50 years time, I’d like to see education short. I believe education can become so efficient and well-designed that we can finish our education from ABC to master’s degree in just 10 years time. So by the time a person is 16, he or she will be ready to start living.

　　Education will become a technical evolution. 技术的进化

　　Maybe I’ve seen too many science fiction movies, but I believe science and technology will revolutionize the way we receive education. And this will happen during the next 50 years. You’ll see! We can put all the knowledge of human kind into little computer chips, and we can open a socket to our, I don’t know, brain. So every time we want to use a particular knowledge, we just plug it in, you know, like a USB disk. Wouldn’t that be cool?

　　3. Science and technology will make it possible for all countries to share education resources.

　　We often say that the world is flat now. What makes it flat? Science and technology, tele-communication, especially internet. So I wouldn’t be crazy to imagine that in the future 50 years, with the help of internet video conferencing, we can bring the image of a professor of Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, you name it, into the classrooms in China. Therefore, internationally famous professors and ideas can be shared globally.