According to a recent report from Grattan Institute in Australia, East Asia is now the base for the world's best education systems. No doubt, the top four countries in OECD PISA (the official "test" for school systems in the world) rankings are Shanghai, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore.
All four countries score way higher than the OECD average readings while big names like the US and UK fare much humbly or even below average in some areas like Maths.
The study also proves that money, class size and culture does not play a part in determining the success of a student.
It is also somewhat evident that less teaching time will produce better results. Shanghai teachers spend about 10-15 hours in classes per week while their US and UK counterparts need 20-30 hours even when the latter have smaller classes than those from the East.
Educators in East Asian countries have more time to plan and prepare their lessons and reflect on their pupils' development and learning. This gives teachers more space and opportunities to help students improve academically.
I agree that Shanghai and Korea have fantastic school systems but for me, the best in the world has got to be Finland. The place where Nokia phones hail from possess one of the most unique education systems where exams do not exist until you want to enter college.
A few months ago, I did blog about the Finnish education and its success. Singapore may produce many mathematical geniuses but people like Apple's Steve Wozniak will still continue to brand us as "uncreative".
A balance needs to be struck in order to fully bring out the best in each and every Singaporean student. Don't just open the floodgates to ungrateful foreign trash (FT) who come and go and conveniently use the economy as an excuse to import more.
No comments:
Post a Comment