A 17-year-old vocational faculty scholar from rural China turned a star on social media after reaching the ultimate spherical of a math competitors, beating many others from high universities and elevating questions in regards to the education system.
Jiang Ping, who’s learning vogue design, completed twelfth within the Alibaba World Math Competitors, one in every of 802 who made it to the ultimate spherical — an eight-hour check that takes place Saturday.
A video that included an interview with Jiang received greater than 800,000 likes and 90,000 feedback after it was posted on social media by Damo Academy, the organizer of the competition. Most expressed their amazement, whereas some questioned if it was actual.
Jiang says within the video interview that she didn’t suppose she deserved to hitch the competitors, although she enjoys engaged on superior math because it “brings out my want to discover.”
Congratulations poured in. Individuals visited her dad and mom’ dwelling in a village in Jiangsu province on China’s east coast with alcohol and cash to point out assist. Her footage had been proven on the partitions of buying malls in her hometown, Lianshui. Zhejiang College and Jiangsu College praised her on their Weibo accounts.
Whereas it was unclear how Jiang ended up in vocational faculty, her story nonetheless reminded some in China of the inequality between rural and urban areas and the way that may make it tougher for even proficient college students to climb the financial ladder.
“Whereas Jiang Ping is brazenly celebrated, many Chinese language really feel deep down inside that her story highlights the hopelessness of Chinese language schooling,” stated Jiang Xueqin, a China-based schooling researcher. “The chances are essentially stacked towards bizarre Chinese language, with out energy, wealth, or ‘guanxi,’” the Chinese language time period for connections.
Inequality in schooling seems to have worsened lately. Spending on schooling in rural areas was 17% lower than in cities in 2019 for the 9 years of obligatory schooling in China, which doesn’t embrace highschool. It was solely 2% decrease in 2013, primarily based on calculations from knowledge in a Peking College report on the urban-rural hole in per capita expenditure.
Ministry of Schooling knowledge present that 70% of scholars in China’s vocational faculties are from rural areas. The excessive proportion means that the schooling system works like a caste system, Jiang, the researcher stated.
Jiang, the mathematics whiz, is the one vocational faculty scholar amongst all of the finalists. The others, who’re principally Chinese language, primarily come from top-tier universities corresponding to Cambridge, MIT and Caltech, in addition to China’s high two, Tsinghua and Peking College. Winners will probably be awarded $2,000 to $30,000 in prize cash.
The competitors was began six years in the past by Alibaba, a Chinese language e-commerce big. Jack Ma, then-executive chair of Alibaba Group, stated the purpose was to search out college students who get pleasure from math and encourage and assist them.
Jiang did nicely sufficient on the doorway examination to go to highschool, the Communist Celebration secretary of her vocational faculty informed state broadcaster CCTV.
The secretary stated she utilized to the vocational faculty as an alternative of a highschool as a result of her older sister and good buddies had been college students there. Different Chinese language media stated it was as a result of she got here from a poor household, and vocational faculty gave her a scholarship.
Makes an attempt to achieve Jiang had been unsuccessful. A name to her faculty was unanswered and Damo Academy, an affiliate of Alibaba, did not reply to an e-mail.
Jiang says within the video interview that her plan is to get into a superb college. It is not not possible, although vocational faculty college students solely have entry to sure establishments.
