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Cultivating talent

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-19 07:57

If China searches for innovative research talent the way it finds promising athletes, it will be as successful as it is in competitive sports. That was what some of the top scientists and educationists from across the Pacific told their Chinese counterparts at a recent symposium on computer science.

That comment reportedly brought forth "understanding smiles and deliberation." We are not in a position to tell whether it was out of appreciation of the way athletes are being cultivated here or pity that scientific talent has not enjoyed similar emphasis, or a little bit of both. Yet we are sure things would be a lot different should the authorities be as serious about scientific talent as about athletic achievers.

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This may sound unfair to some. After all, we have seen rounds of attempts to win over smart brains from all over the world. All we can conclude from that is that the severe thirst for talent has not disappeared. And, the offers are usually lucrative.

Yet have you ever seen the kind of enthusiasm and all-out effort this country devoted to the Olympics in the cultivation of scientific talent? The recent strides in China's competitive sports have much to do with the unreserved, and often unconditional, support given by the government. Which is out of the question for scientific undertakings, perhaps with the exception of some priorities on the official agenda, such as sending people into space. At least at local levels, most officials would rather see resources allocated to areas that promise instant gains. Finding and cultivating young talent, however, does not deliver that.

Even if the country's success in identifying promising talent for sports can be transplanted in the academic field, that is, at best, a good starting point. There is no guarantee that it will logically make us a true scientific powerhouse. Two other conditions are needed for the effort to bear fruit. First, promising candidates must be cultivated in a way that inspires creativity and original research.

Second, there must be an institutional environment conducive to innovation.

With the national education system, from primary schools to colleges, notoriously driven by and preoccupied with coping with exams, and professors and academics setting bad personal examples by practices such as copying, we cannot entertain extravagant hopes. The omnipotence of administrative and political nonsense in academic circles makes authentic research an even more unworthy undertaking for many.

With our huge population base and traditional emphasis on education, we do not lack people of great academic potential. But turning that potential into scientific talent, and then bringing such talent into full play entails a fresh look at, if not a reshuffle of, our system, priorities and practices.

(China Daily 10/19/2009 page4)