No need to make a song and dance about math

The British Department of Education announced recently that half of the primary schools in England will teach mathematic in the "Asian way", for which the government will provide huge funds to pay for teaching materials and teachers' training.

Because of the poor performance of British students in the Program for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Shanghai students' stellar showing in the assessment, many Britons had been asking the government to adopt the "Shanghai method" of teaching math. BBC has even made a documentary on how to introduce the Chinese math teaching method to British schools.

These developments have prompted some in China to assume the Chinese education model has got the global stamp of excellence. But let us not jump to conclusions.