Lessons on education

It was like the elephant in the room which no-one was willing to talk about, that is, until former vice-minister of education Wei Jue spoke out: Many of the proposals and motions on education tabled at the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were bewildering to the education authorities.

We know that. As do many others. We know the composition of the two all-important entities where representatives of educational circles are few, and those who consider education as a science are even rarer. We are not at all surprised if some of their proposals confuse and astound.

The more revealing part of Wei's observation is this: One reason for the education departments' embarrassment was they "did not take themselves seriously".