Blind to education flaws

Updated: 2011-12-28 08:25

(China Daily)

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People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Although it was warmly welcomed at the time, the speech given by the president of Peking University to students at a middle school in Changsha, Hunan province, is deeply troubling.

In his bid to enroll quality students to the university, Zhou Qifeng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the education system of the United States is flawed, for it fails to produce world citizens and even US presidents do not know how to respect other countries.

While Zhou managed to easily divert his middle school listeners' attention to the shortcomings of the US education system, he nimbly avoided any mention of the problems ingrained in Chinese education.

In fact, higher education institutes in the US are the most popular choice for students around the world, including those from Zhou's own university: about 70 percent of graduates in science and engineering from Peking University go to the US for further education.

The comments would not be so worrying if they had come from an admissions officer rather than the president of the country's most prestigious university.

Zhou's position as the head of China's top university provides sufficient reason to worry about our willingness and ability to face up to the shortcomings in the nation's education system.

China's dazzling economic growth over the past 30 years, which has come with huge social and environmental costs, should not be taken as evidence of the success of Chinese education. Nor should the stagnant economy of the US indicate, as many Chinese seem to assume, the decline of education in the US either.

On the contrary, to ensure China's continued and sustainable development requires urgent reform of its education system so as to promote innovation, which requires independent thinking and creativity, both of which the examination-oriented system fails to nurture.

In addition, all children need equal access to education, which at the moment is heavily biased in favor of urban children.

In his bid to sell Peking University by depreciating others, Zhou has only served to highlight the pressing need to overhaul the nation's education system if we are to build an inclusive society that can meet the challenges ahead.

The best way to win respect is to constantly strive to improve oneself, not by raising oneself up by belittling others.

(China Daily 12/28/2011 page8)