With whiskers almost covering half of his face, Jiang seems much older than his real age.
It was nearly two o’clock in the afternoon. Jiang’s parents had finished their lunch for a long time, but he was still in bed, looking sleepy. His mother told us that he had stayed up playing computer games all night. Having no job and waiting for employment at home, he seldom wakes up before 11 o’clock. Every night is sleepless, and every day is used for sleep.
“I should have gone to high school. My life now is dull and hopeless,” he said to me while smoking. Born in 1998, this 17 year-old boy has been out of school since dropping out almost two years ago. Following the flow of dropout students in rural area, he took some labouring work since he dropped out. But now, he has been staying at home for a long time without a formal job, he agreed to an interview, and lit a cigarette.
His name is He Jiangsheng, and those like him are quite common in the “problem juvenile” group. This huge group is a special crowd among Chinese teenagers, which consists mostly of dropout students, especially in rural areas. They dropped out from school for many reasons, ranging from the bad scores in study to no interest. Financial issue is not usually on the reason list.
Since the start of the obligaory 9 years of education, the education condition and equipment of rural schools is much better than before, and money generally not an obstacle lying on the way of education any more. Liu Chengbin, an associate professor from socialism college of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, did a survey referring to the dropout rate in China. Liu concluded that the actual dropout rate among Chinese teenagers now is above 10 percent, or almost 20-30 million students, far higher than the 3 percent rate set by the central government. Most of them chose to work to support themselves. Being poorly educated, their jobs are usually labouring with low salary. Without a so-called dream, their lives have no blueprint.
Having dropping out, Jiang usually did poor in study. Though once ranked 57th in the whole school. Additionally, he was a gifted genius in sports. Jiang used to have a bright future to realize. He had precious talents in running and basketball, and could be an athlete. He was adept at running and once covered 100 meters using only 11’57’’, which is the best score of him. Apart from this, he was also accomplished at basketball. That time was the season when high schools began to persuade good middle-school students to apply for them. Jiang was guaranteed by the teacher of a nice high school that he could be admitted by this school without any limitation in grade. That was a huge honour for a student. And Jiang’s life path seemed bright, his future significant. “I was the best student in sport in our school at that time!” he said to me, with sparks shining in his eyes.
But he messed it up. Things got totally the opposite and collapsed in a quite short time, he recalled. Due to his irrationality and annoyance of school life, Jiang said, he decided to give up his school work and leave. He wanted to have fun, and enjoy the pleasure of wasting time, with nothing serious to do, he said. So he gave up the opportunity to go to high school because he was not interested in school work.
He got admission in a technological school, but life there was much harder than his expectation. The teacher in that school was familiar with that kind of so-called “helpless” students. They took few responsibilities in guiding them neither in study nor in daily life.
“My seat had been changed frequently at that time, even without my approval,” Jiang said. The teacher just claimed that he couldn’t sit there anymore and then moved his seat casually and personally. “In the end I even couldn’t find where my textbooks were. I had nothing to do with this situation, so my daily routine in school was sleeping,” he said.
Without any surprise, only after he stepped into the school for two month, he dropped out from the school and became an idler totally.
He lived casually, learning how to smoke, joining a gang, wandering in bars all night, staying up in net bars for computer gaming, and sometimes even having a fight with another gang. He lost the compass of his life, as he did not have a destination in his future. He began to develop a taste for cigarettes and alcohol.
As the majority of “problem juvenile” chose to work after leaving school, he was in no exception. His parents found a job which was carrying electric cables. It was winter in 2013, and the weather was not very good, so carrying cables outside was an unbearable work for Jiang. The job was too cruel for him. Again, he quit the job two month after getting it. And then came back to his warm and carefree shelter.
“I have taken some jobs before, but none of them lasted for a long time,” he said.
From Du Yuzhen’s point of view, who is from the Henan Science and Technology university, Children who dropped out from school nowadays are not equipped with the ability to raise a better life for themselves, escaping from school to make a living blindly. Juveniles like them gathering in crowds will finally lead to social problem which can never be ignored.
“It’s a common phenomenon that dropout teenagers leaving their hometown become immigrant worker,” said Liu Chengbin, “and the reason why they chose to drop out is not financial pressure, but their perception.”
The perception of education being useless, resulted in the high rate of dropout in rural China. Based on data surveyed by scholar Zhang Mingshui, the highest dropout rate of school in Luoshan county of Henan province is up to 8.8 percent, while the education development in Luoshan County is almost the best among other counties in Henan province.
Having no academic degree certificate, no programming of future, these young kids just live their life blindly, and time flies. When the majority of our youth are on their way to the brightness, there’s a minority of people left behind. And this group is getting bigger and bigger.
Tired of casual life, He Jiangsheng hasn’t gone out to seek such sensory fun for long time. He just stays at home, helping his father do some manual labor, such as carrying the furniture for neighbors. When asked why, he said, “This kind of life is meaningless.”
His mother left some dishes for him and warmed up some cooked rice.
As for expectations of her son, she considered for a while, and admitted that she did have some hopes for her son. But when talking about the further contents of the expectations specifically, she thought for a while again, but came up with none. She turned around and walked away.
When asked about his future career planning, he responded with a specific answer quickly, and it seems like the last way to rescue him from such a messy life.
Jiang dreamed that, “I want to join in the army. And this time I want to stick to it.”
This article was first published in The Nanjinger Magazine, November 2015 Issue. If you would like to read the whole magazine, please follow this link.
