【10.03.7 纽约时报】中国的受教育者担忧未来 之五 大学教育 － 求之若渴（完）

满仓

【中文标题】中国的受教育者担忧未来 之五 大学教育 － 求之若渴
【原文标题】Educated and Fearing The Future in China - College Educations, Needed and Desired
【登载媒体】纽约时报
【原文作者】Loren Brandt
【原文链接】http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/educated-and-fearing-the-future-in-china/



Loren Brandt是多伦多大学的经济学教授，同时担任德国波恩劳动力研究学院的合伙研究员。他发表过多篇讨论中国经济的文章，并参与了中国社会和企业的多方面调查工作。他是《中国经济转型》的编辑之一。

中国的城市劳动力市场截然分为两部分——有城市居住许可证（户口）的劳动力和来自农村地区的农民工。总体来看，这两类人群相重叠的就业机会并不很多，但却不断在增加。

中国城市的劳动力总量大约是4.75亿到5亿之间，其中60％到65％的人持有城市居住许可证（户口），其余都是农民工。大部分持有户口的居民（四分之三以上）都有比较“正式”的工作，即更安全的工作环境、高工资以及被纳入中国社会保障体系网络中。而农民工在城市中找到的都是“非正式”的工作，包括制造业、建筑业和服务业。

对于农民工来说，进入城市正式工作圈子的最大障碍就是受教育水平。近期到城市务工的农村居民平均只接受过初中教育（9年），比他们的城市对手教育年限平均少5年。这些农民工其实也乐意做一些城市居民通常不愿意去做的工作。

统计数据显示从2002年到2008年，城市地区的就业人数平均每年增长4％（即每年新增1500万个城市就业岗位），农民工就业人数增长比率超过了城市居民就业人数的增长比率（5.1%对3.3％）。以此来看，在金融危机爆发之前，中国很多地区的劳动力市场状况已经不容乐观。

到了2008年底，城市就业人数开始下降，这个趋势一直持续到2009年上半年，但是有迹象显示城市的就业形势已经开始复苏。

而大学毕业生们所面临的问题既不是经济环境，也不是农民工。而是高等教育迅速扩张与劳动力市场相背离的必然结果。

2003年的调查数据已经显示出所面临的问题。显而易见，中国三流高校的女毕业生，以及那些教育、文学和自然科学专业的毕业生情况更加窘迫。同时起作用的还有地区性差异。

尽管如此，大学学位还是可以期望高经济回报的，中国新生的中产阶级还会继续让他们的后代产生更多的教育需求。

中国的教育机制要克尽其职，要能够培养出被市场所认可的一些技能。在需求一方，也需要做一些改革，比如调整金融系统，来放松对中国私营经济体的钳制，它们可以提供大量的就业机会。然而以上这些变化不太可能很快实现。


原文：

Loren Brandt is a professor of economics at the University of Toronto. He is a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany. He has published widely on the Chinese economy and has been involved in extensive household and enterprise survey work in China. He is the co-editor of China’s Great Economic Transformation.

China’s urban labor market is fairly sharply divided between workers with urban residency permits (hukou) and migrants from rural areas. In general, the overlap in the job market for these two populations is relatively modest, but it has been increasing over time.

Of the total urban workforce of 475-500 million, 60 to 65 percent have urban residency permits (hukou) with the remaining being migrants. A majority of those with residency permits (upwards of three-quarters) work in the “formal” sector in jobs that offer more security, higher wages, as well as the benefits of China’s social safety net. The migrants are more likely to be found in the “informal” urban sector, including manufacturing, construction and services.

For migrants, one huge barrier to jobs in the formal urban sector is their significantly lower levels of education. The most recent arrivals from the countryside have an average educational attainment of middle school (9 years in total), or five years less than their urban counterparts. Migrants are also willing to take the less desirable jobs that urban residents usually avoid.

Estimates suggest that between 2002 and 2008 urban employment grew by nearly 4 percent a year (or 15 million new urban jobs annually), with annual employment growth of migrants outpacing that of urban residents (5.1 percent versus 3.3 percent). Indeed, on the eve of the recent financial crisis, labor markets in many parts of China were fairly tight.

At the end of 2008, total urban employment began to decline and continued to fall through the first half of 2009, but there are indications that urban job growth is now recovering.

The problem facing new college graduates is neither the economy nor the migrants.

Instead, it is the result of a rapid of expansion in higher education and a serious mismatch in the labor market. In 2003, surveys were already pointing to these difficulties. Notably, women, graduates from China’s lower-tier colleges and universities, and those with degrees in education, literature and science were faring more poorly. There were also important regional differences.

Nonetheless, overall there will still be high economic returns for a college degree, and China’s emerging middle class will continue to demand expanded educational opportunities for their children.

China’s educational system needs to do a better job of providing the skills that are valued by the market. On the demand side, other reforms, including those in the financial system, are required to relax constraints facing China’s private sector, which creates jobs. Neither of these changes, however, will happen quickly.

渐入佳境

过分着重于大学教育确实不是个事，除了让教育产业红红火火之外，后遗症很多。
而且，我国学生的受教育时间过长，把生命里精力最旺盛、求知欲最强的时间都耽误在高中了。而所学到的知识，在短短几年内就会忘得不剩多少。严重浪费！