Education

Chinese School Places Tanks Outside To Encourage Students To Do Better

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A Chinese high school held a ceremony Tuesday for two tanks it placed outside to encourage students and staff members to do better.

Hengshui No.1 High School in Handan, China, purchased the tanks from the country’s People’s Liberation Army, reported the South China Morning Post. Hengshui President Guo Hong said the tanks have serial numbers 211 and 985, signifying two of China’s top universities.

“[We] hope that each student and teacher will carry forward the spirit of fearlessness towards any difficulties and of making sacrifices, and fight bravely … never taking a break in studying, in fighting and in contributing,” an unidentified staff member said.

There are claims that pupils are made to study for more than 15 hours a day, and are given only 15-minute meal breaks. https://t.co/G9xDeiEuVR

— IvanZhai (@ivanzhai) June 27, 2018

Hengshui No.1 High School is an initiative of Hengshui No.1 Middle School, a Chinese school that has the most students attending China’s top universities. The high school has incorporated a militaristic approach to education in the past. Its students allegedly study at least 15 hours a day with 15-minute meal breaks. Administrators survey the students through HD cameras and ban male and female students from having close contact with one another. The school created a 500,000 yuan ($76,000 in the U.S.) award for students from its Zhejiang branch who get accepted into Tsinghua University or Peking University, China’s two top schools.

“This is a typical exam-oriented case, in which grades are more important than humans,” Zhejiang Education Bureau Director Fang Hongfeng said, referring to Hengshui. “They believe this is advanced but we think it’s outdated, and we don’t need it in Zhejiang.”

The tanks recall the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, when the Chinese military used the vehicles to quell dissent, resulting in a death toll ranging between several hundred, as reported by the country’s government, and 10,000, a figure asserted by a British cable.

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