The Disappearing 40% of Vocational High School Students

In simpler terms, these are kids who didn't make it into high school or university and ended up in vocational schools or technical secondary schools—about 40% of young people. Their days consist of sleeping, scrolling on their phones, and helping out at home occasionally. The only things that excite them might be fighting in groups and dating. Among this group, about 10% are children of small factory owners—families with some mining interests but poor parenting, or those who deliberately steered their kids toward learning a trade so they’d eventually come home and help manage the family business. The rest are mostly left-behind children or from extremely impoverished families; a smaller portion were tricked into vocational schools because they’d never heard of high school or university due to an information gap (and were promised money).

Most of them lack any vision for the future—or rather, they lack the courage to imagine one. They’ve essentially given up on themselves.

School resources are普遍 poor, as there’s little government funding, and equipment is prohibitively expensive. Naturally, there’s little of value to learn. Teachers themselves often view these institutions as dumping grounds for discarded youth.

Post-graduation, the path is remarkably predictable: most end up on factory assembly lines earning around 4,000–5,000 RMB monthly. Those who refuse factory work struggle to find stable employment or even basic income. Meanwhile, manufacturing outsourcing and robot replacement are making jobs even scarcer. Many can’t even perform basic internet searches—let alone research what’s needed to open a shop—making them prime targets for online scams.

The essay’s closing line captures it all: “Look at those streets outside. Someone has to sweep them.” The question then becomes: what’s the point of trying to change anything? Shouldn’t someone still be sweeping? So the argument goes: we won’t do it, and our children shouldn’t have to. Someone else must take that role—that’s the purpose of family education.

Off-topic note: This series was originally planned as four or five articles saved for later reading. Today, only this one survived deletion by censors.

40%: The “Completely Irrelevant” World of Vocational High Schools