UK schools to use Shanghai math textbooks

Tom Isherwood, one of the 71 top maths teachers from England who visited Shanghai schools (China)in September, gives maths lessons with the method he learnt from his peer in Shanghai. Wang Mingjie / China Daily

Students in some parts of the United Kingdom will use the same math textbooks pupils in Shanghai use from September.

In March, Collins Learning and Shanghai Century Publishing Group signed an agreement at the London Book Fair to publish English translations of math textbooks used by Shanghai's primary schools.

Collins named the series "Real Shanghai Maths" and plans to promote it in the UK.

The series of 36 textbooks have been translated word for word from Chinese except the renminbi symbol, which has been replaced by the pound symbol.

According to an employee of Shanghai Century Publishing Group, this is the first time a whole series of China's primary school textbooks have been introduced into national education system in a developed country.

Students from Shanghai have consistently scored well in the Program for International Student Assessment, a triennial exam of 15-year-old students that helps evaluate education systems around the world.

The textbooks already have been used by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics to train British teachers.