Changing tide in Chinese education?

Education is compulsory through the ninth grade in China and public education can begin as young as age two, but that all might be changing.

In the Guangzhou area in southern China, education leaders proudly informed our delegation that in 2010 they began providing a free education to all students through the 12th grade. (Elsewhere in the country, high school education is paid for by the parents). This move reflects the continued value the government places on education and may be modeled elsewhere in the country.

No changes appear on the horizon for other aspects of the education standards in China. Placement tests continue to be given after sixth and ninth grades to see where the kids will be placed. If they don’t score high enough, they are placed in technical or other forms of education.
How this impacts them became clear when our delegation met with a group of kids really happy to see us in a park in Zengcheng City. They had no idea who we were but wanted our picture because we were blond haired and white. In talking to the girls, we asked (through an interpreter) where they went to school.  One said “I am stupid, I go to technical school.”