Society
Chinese cool on calling Shanghai students smartest
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-12-10 13:37
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SHANGHAI - Chinese parents and education experts have shrugged off a report from an international organization saying Shanghai students are the smartest in the world.
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"As it stands right now, America is in danger of falling behind," US President Barack Obama was quoted as saying by the New York Times as he commented on the rise of China's education in a speech to a college audience in North Carolina.
But Chinese parents and educators say the performance of Shanghai students was no proof of a successful education system in China where students are burdened with an excessive workload and there exists a large gap in education resources between different regions.
"Admittedly, Chinese students are comparatively knowledgeable and have very strong learning skills. But they were results of pressure from school, family and society," said Xiong Bingqi, a renowned professor with Jiaotong University who specializes in education in China.
Chinese students work extra long hours on school days and continue to have classes on weekends and holiday. It is hard for them not to perform well on tests, he added.
Xiong said the OECD result did not surprise him. A similar test of 28,000 Shanghai ninth graders in 2008 showed that their learning skills were at least as good as Finnish and Swedish students.
"It would be dangerous to take it as a great feat of China's efforts as having improved its education. We must not let the good test results hide away the problems of education in China," Xiong said. Many Chinese parents agreed with him.
"Chinese children are victims of a test-oriented education system. We have no reason to celebrate the result of another test, " said Shanghai mother Guan Jiaojiao.
Guan said Chinese children lack the ability to solve real questions and are not independent enough because they spend too much time learning. But she sees to it that her 16-year-old son attends a three-hour training on math every Saturday. "I don't like it, but my son's future is at stake."
Better education? Better country?
"Better educational outcomes are a strong predictor for future economic growth," said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria.
Cai Fang, head of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics, sees opportunity for economic growth in the potential of China's educational development.
China's education still lags far behind that of developed countries. China will see a significant increase in its labor productivity with the improvement of education, Cai said.
Research shows labor productivity will generally rise by 17 percent when the average education of a company's workforce is extended by one year. If all of a company's workers are high school graduates, then its productivity could jump by 66 percent if each of its workers has a college degree, he explained.
"Improving education, especially in rural and inland China, will extend the demographic dividend of the country and sustain the competitiveness of the country's manufacturing industry," Cai said.
But Xiong, among others, worries whether China's educational system can produce enough talented citizens who can support the country in its bidding for social and economic transformation.
The greatest disadvantage of China's education is the cultivation of personality, integrity and innovation, which is vital for the making of true talents, Xiong said.
According to a survey by the International Assessment of Educational Progress in 2009, China was at the bottom in all 21 polled countries in its students' imagination and ranked 17th in children's creativity. However, they ranked first in math skills.
Amid criticism, China issued a 10-year national education plan (from 2010 to 2020) on July 29, pledging to build an assignment burden monitoring and reporting mechanism to lessen the burdens on primary and secondary school students.
Education reform was also included in the proposed 12th Five-Year Plan, a roadmap for China's development from 2011 to 2015, right after economic growth.
According to the plan proposed by the Communist Party of China's Central Committee, China will strive to improve education, enhance people's ability to innovate and expand the pool of creative talents to build an innovation-oriented country with more advanced science and technologies, a better-educated work force and innovative management mechanisms.
It is imperative for educators and the authorities to find a way to free Chinese children from heavy burdens and encourage development of personality so that they can learn to innovate, to think independently and to apply their knowledge in practice, Xiong said.
"It's not a simple task. Changes must be made in schools, in exams, in higher education and in the job market," he said.
