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Today I took my younger brother to enroll at the district vocational high school. I never expected to run into something like this.

When we got to the school gate, a crowd was pressed up in front of it. I walked over and asked, and learned they were all rushing to sign up. The whole crowd at the gate had high school entrance exam scores below 320, while those with 320 or above could all take the fast lane on the left.

We parents with scores below 320 stood at the gate in the sun, listening to the security guard come out every so often and shout, "320 and above, come this way. 280 and below, don't bother lining up. You won't get in in the end."

After more than two hours in line, we finally got through the gate. Then we sat in a meeting hall for about forty minutes, listening to teachers call numbers for batches of interviews.

I thought, do you need an interview just to attend a vocational school now? Maybe vocational education in this country really is getting better, and that's fine, it lets them pick students with better qualities. But it turned out not to be what I thought. Until we went into the interview room, I was in a decent mood.

I thought, even if I can't get a good program, like a bachelor's track or a 3+2 program, I can at least sign up for an ordinary junior-college track, right? If not, I can pick a less popular major and still get in.

The teacher at the interview room door told us we only needed our score report ready before going in, no electronic devices, and no watches either. Honestly, I thought that was odd, but I didn't say much or think much about it.

Right before we went in, a dark-skinned man, probably another parent, walked over. It seemed a friend of his was in line behind me. He said, "After the interview, you have to decide whether to pay. If you're willing to pay, there's a second round of interviews after you pay."

Hearing him, I wondered. Surely you don't have to "pay" just to attend a vocational school?

But before I could think any more, it was our turn to go in.

There were two teachers in the interview room, a man and a woman, each seeing one student. The male teacher saw us. As soon as we walked in, he asked, "Are you father and son, or brothers?"

I said, "Brothers." I didn't know yet what he was getting at.

Then my brother handed over his score report. The teacher looked at the score: "310. What major do you want?"

Then he showed us the list of majors: "These are gone now: XXX, XXX, XXX... Look for yourself and see what you want."

I saw that "Electronic Technology Application" still had openings and felt pretty glad. I pointed and said, "This one, Electronic Technology Application."

With the major settled, the male teacher said, "Okay. This major has two spots left, so I'll be brief with you, because I'm afraid they'll run out soon."

Then he said, "Your score doesn't meet the school's requirement. To study at our school, you'll need 'sponsored admission,' and for your score, the sponsorship amount is this."

He didn't say it out loud. He wrote a plain 1 on a sheet of white paper with a marker.

Ten thousand yuan.

I'd already prepared myself a little outside, but I still found it hard to accept. Then the male teacher asked me, "Can you decide this?"

Honestly, if I were willing to pay the ten thousand, I could certainly decide. But I wasn't willing at all. So I said, "I can't. I need to make a phone call."

Then the teacher said, "Call right away. Hurry. There aren't many spots."

I said fine and took my brother out of the interview room. The whole thing took less than two minutes.

The parents still in line outside asked why I'd come out so fast. I said, "After you go in, they look at the score, you pick a major, and then they quote a fixed price. It's not complicated."

Having heard the man earlier, these parents must have been prepared too. But I noticed they didn't seem to care much about one or two thousand yuan more or less. They were still asking me, "So what majors are left? What majors are there?"

I made a bit of small talk with them and took my brother straight away.

What happened today shocked me.

First, although student numbers in China are falling sharply from kindergarten through primary school, middle school students are clearly still increasing year after year, especially in big cities like Chengdu, where there are examinees by the thousands.

Competition is so fierce that a cutoff of 320 can shut out a whole crowd of students like my brother.

Standing in line at the school gate today, I realized that after the high school entrance exam, the sorting may be over for academic competition, but competition with students at your own level isn't over at all. Even vocational schools are divided into tiers, and students at each score go to different schools, programs, and majors.

There's competition everywhere in life, and ranking everywhere in life.

Second, I never imagined it. You have to pay even to go to a vocational school. What does that mean? In the past, vocational school was a byword for "coasting," and its students were generally known for low quality and little education. In that context, it means that even to coast now, you need "sponsored admission" to qualify.

And I don't know what the parents who didn't care about the money were thinking.

This is a vocational school. And even if it weren't, even if it were an ordinary school, what's the point of paying to get into a school? I pay ten thousand yuan, and what class do I get into?

An ordinary one, at best.

It isn't as if my child, by paying and getting into your school, will go on to great success with no worries about the future. So why not go to a school that doesn't require "sponsored admission"?

So the moment I walked out, it felt really surreal. I couldn't imagine that to attend a vocational school you'd need "sponsored admission," and for the most ordinary class at that, and even so the spots are still in hot demand.

I really can't stand it.

On the way back, the more I thought about it, the more wrong it felt, and the more sure I was that I'd never pay that ten thousand yuan. Ten thousand isn't much as these things go. Plenty of parents spend fifty or sixty thousand, even a hundred thousand and more, to get their kids into certain schools. But for a public vocational school, ten thousand yuan could cover three years of textbooks, tuition and fees, and several months of living costs.

Figured that way, I felt even more that it wasn't worth paying. Even if I sent my brother to a private school at five or six thousand a year, I wouldn't pay ten thousand in so-called "sponsorship" to put him in a public one.

I think this comes down to the number of examinees now. There are too many students, and everyone wants to move up after graduation, which creates this situation.

I once read online that the number of examinees in China will peak in 2032 and then start falling year by year.

Maybe only then will this kind of thing gradually go away.

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