During the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, China’s notoriously polluted capital, a controversial interview surfaced on the website of Tsinghua University. Alleged to have the support of university president Binglin Gu, the interview condemned the Chinese higher education system as teeming with “serious academic corruption dry and irrelevant to society curriculum, and rote memorization teaching methods.” It continued on to say, “The old-fashioned methods of teaching and teaching material caused our society to lose many Da Vinci’s and Bill Gates … up to now, China has no Nobel prize-winners, which has a lot to do with this kind of education pattern.”
While the interview was later revealed to be a fabrication by hackers, it still garnered enough attention to challenge the effectiveness of Chinese higher education, now the largest system of tertiary education in the world. The question remains though: Are the claims true?
As the report claims, China’s education style is, in a way, old fashioned. China has long favored memorization and exams for its education. This tradition dates all the way back to the 7th century, when China’s growing bureaucracy created the challenging keju exam system in order to select the best administrators. More than a millennium has passed, but the importance of the exam in Chinese education remains.
The college entrance exams, or the gaokao, a modern form of the ancient keju, serves as the single admission criteria for all Chinese universities. It has become a national obsession for college-bound students. In order to succeed on these intensely rigorous tests, the college hopeful have resorted to “cram-schools,” which fill the hours between school and bedtime with studying. On weekends, some 20,000 students will arrive at certain cram schools at 6:20 in the morning only to return home over 14 hours later.
The college admissions process has also received criticism for its bias and discrimination. Reports have suggested that more wealthy, urban students from influential cities like Shanghai and Beijing are 41 times more likely to be admitted to Peking University compared to more rural and poorer students from the province of Anhui.
Not surprisingly, more testing means Chinese students spend more time in classrooms than their Western peers. While more than one-third of Chinese college students experience 30 hours of class time a week, the average UK college student spends 14 hours equally working inside and outside of the classroom. In comparison, 40 percent of Chinese college students spend less than five hours working outside of class.
The Chinese obsession with tests corresponds to the increasing attendance and funding among the country’s colleges. In 1999, the Chinese government expanded its education system in order to jumpstart its stagnant economy. The number of graduating students has spiked since then. In 2003 there were 2.12 million university graduates in China, with almost 7 million a decade later, according to government estimates.
However, this investment in education has not entirely paid off. As more and more Chinese have enrolled in universities, China has found its economy actually decelerating, albeit in small amounts. Recent graduates have also struggled with employment, with only 35 percent having found employment. Post-graduate students fare even worse, with only 26 percent having found employment.
While China has invested greatly in its own higher education, its best universities still cannot hold a candle to those elsewhere, particularly in the West. This has led a large number of Chinese students to seek more valuable college educations abroad to get an edge in an increasingly difficult domestic job market. More than 3 million Chinese students have chosen to study abroad and they represent 20 percent of international students from OECD countries.
These international students often do not return home. In fact, according to a study, 85 percent of Chinese students who earned their doctorate in America in 2006 were still there five years later. With so many potential academics and intellectuals not returning to the country, many proclaim that China has a “brain-drain.” Only recently have Chinese citizens begun to win Nobel prizes for work done in their home country.
To entice its many expatriate academics back to their homeland, China has offered generous benefits. Those who return can expect free housing, a 1 million Yuan bonus and state-of-the-art facilities. The results were exceptional: From 2005 to 2012, published research articles from universities rose by 54 percent, with patents increasing eightfold. However, returning professors still have to work in an academic environment that restricts their research. Currently, the Chinese government plays a major role in directing research and rewards academics for the quantity of articles published rather than their quality.
Yet the sheer amount of money China has invested in its higher education system should guarantee results, a Harvard Business Review article stressed. It predicted that China will soon produce the most PhDs of any country in the world and lauded the increasing productivity of its professors.
The question still remains as to whether or not China can innovate and compete in both the realms of business and education. While perhaps less revered and creative, China’s universities are pioneering a controversial yet forward-looking path. To those guiding this burgeoning system, quantity has a quality of its own.
– Andrew Logan
Sources: The Economist, Harvard Business Review, New York Times 1, New York Times 2, Times Higher Education, TIME, University of Buffalo
Photo: New York Times
The BRIC Countries Growing Contributions to International Aid
Times are changing in the realm of foreign aid. Recent economic downturns have caused the aid levels of traditional donors like the US, Japan and the European Union to stagnate. However, another group of countries is rising to take their places. While in the past, these countries have received large amounts of foreign aid, they have rapidly evolved into some of the biggest benefactors. These burgeoning non-traditional donors are the BRIC countries.
Devised in 2001 by Jim O’Neil of Goldman Sachs, the acronym, BRIC, indicates Brazil, Russia, India and China. Within their borders, they contain 40% of the global population, encompassing a quarter of the world’s land and constitute another quarter of the global GDP. Those are some significant fractions.
Though already substantial, the BRIC countries stand to grow into the largest economies of the 21st century. According to predictions, China will have the largest GDP in the world by 2050, nearly twice that of the US. While China’s BRIC cohorts, India, Brazil and Russia are expected to stand at third, fifth and sixth places respectively.
In coincidence with their economic expansions, the BRIC countries have also stepped up their contributions to foreign aid. Estimates place China at the head of the pack with foreign aid spending in the broad range of $4 billion to $25 billion annually. According the Council on Foreign Relations, “This higher estimate would make China the second-largest provider of aid after the United States.” The rest of the BRICs trail behind. Estimates suggest India donates up from $680 million to $2.2billion annually, followed by Brazil with $400 million to $1.2 billion and finally, Russia with $500 million a year.
Excluding China however, these levels still hardly match traditional donors such as Norway, Sweden, Australia, Japan, the UK, France, Germany and Italy. Russia’s aid spending equals approximately that of Greece, while India’s spending compares to that of Portugal.
So then, what exactly makes the BRIC foreign aid spending significant?
Though the BRICs do not spend nearly as much as traditional donors, they spend in more incisive and focused manners. According to the GHSi, “international organizations have started looking to the BRICS as potential donors and health innovators in their own right . . . These countries represent a potentially transformative source of new resources and innovation for global health and development.”
India in particular has focused on global health initiatives that have labeled it “The Developing World’s Pharmacy”. As a major manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, India makes 60% to 80% of vaccines used by the UN and 80% of all donor-funded HIV treatments to developing nations.
Growth in spending, rather than the sheer magnitude of spending, also distinctively marks BRICs from more traditional donors. According to Reuters, all BRIC countries have heavily accelerated foreign aid spending in recent years. China has quadrupled its foreign aid spending between the years 2004 and 2011. According to their estimates, Brazil’s aid spending has had an annual increase of 20% a year between the years of 2005 and 2011. In 2010, Russia’s aid spending had quadrupled since 2006.
This growth also comes at a time when some traditional donors’ spending has become stagnant. While India’s foreign aid spending has, according to Reuters, “grown . . . at a rate 10 times that of the US,” Italian foreign aid has “fallen 10 percent in [the same] period.” In 2014, other traditional donors like Canada, France and Portugal all significantly decreased foreign aid spending.
For the rapidly expanding BRIC countries, foreign aid serves as a way to galvanize their position amongst the more traditional global powers. While they still cannot quite match their more developed counterparts, their increasing foreign aid spending reflects their predicted ascension into economic prosperity.
– Andrew Logan
Sources: Asia Pathways, CFR Global Sherpa 1, Global Sherpa 2 IPS News, NCBI Reuters, The Guardian 1 The Guardian 2
Photo: Flickr
The Global Education Gap Remains Despite Education Numbers Surging
A new Brookings Institution report details just what this problem is: a 100-year gap in the quality of education between developed and developing regions of the world. This means that the average level of education in many poor countries today is the same as the levels of education in places like Europe and North America were in 1900.
Not only is there a 100-year gap between global education in the developed world and the developing world, but the developing world also lags 85 years behind when it comes to educational attainment. It will take average-scoring students in the developing world six generations to catch up to the same scoring students in the developed world today.
Ninety percent of primary school-aged children are enrolled in school around the world – that success should not go unnoticed or without applause. At the end of World War II, only 1 million children attended primary school. In 65 years, this has increased to 7 million. This “going to scale” of education across the world is incredible. The next step, however, is catching the developing world up to the education levels the developed world enjoys today.
How did it get behind in the first place? The idea of mass schooling is available to all young people and not only those with the resources to access it became a mainstream idea in the middle of the 1800s in areas like North America and Europe. Only in 1948, almost 100 years later, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights did this become a concept applied to children across the whole world.
Even with the large enrollment number victory, if the data is broken down in specific regions, the picture is not as pretty. In Sub-Saharan Africa, less than 80 percent of school-aged children attend school.
Another way to examine the gap is by looking at the average number of years of schooling adults have. In 1870, adults in the developed world completed an average of 2.8 years of schooling, while adults in the developing world completed under half that time – 0.5 years.
The average lagged behind, usually with adults in the developing world completing under half the years of education that their counterparts in the developing world did until 2010. For every 12 years that adults in the developed world completed on average, adults in the developing world complete an average of 6.5 years – just over half.
It is imperative that this gap is reduced and eventually banished for good. Besides the idea that morally all children deserve the opportunity to develop in order to thrive in the modern age, there are a couple of other reasons why action should be taken immediately. First, ending the 100-year gap holds the possibility for reform and improved global education. New ways of thinking about education in the developing world have the potential to be helpful to education systems in the developed world and benefit all young people.
Second, there is a skills deficit that has already started – between 2010 and 2030, 360 million people over the age of 55 will retire. At the same time, a 60 percent increase in the global labor force will come from places like Africa, India and other South Asian countries, all places in the developing world. These young people should not be affected by the global education gap, so they can seize their place in the world economy left by the well-educated retirees that came before them. If nothing is done, the 100-year gap will continue into eternity. Changes must be made to ensure this does not happen, for the sake of the world’s children and perhaps the world’s economy as well.
– Greg Baker
Sources: Brookings, BBC MG Africa
Photo: Africa Business Conference
Vision Not Victim Program Helps Girls Reach Goals
Girls in developing nations have been facing hardships like violent civil wars and survival in unfamiliar countries as refugees. Their gender and age makes them vulnerable to harassment, exploitation, violence and being bought and sold as child brides.
Many are prevented from attending school and receiving proper health care. Instead of being able to develop their own identity and pursue their personal dreams, they are urged to work for the benefit of their family.
A program by the International Rescue Committee called Vision Not Victim was started to supply girls with the skills and support they need in order to realize their potential and make their dreams a reality.
Meredith Hutchison traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the summer of 2010 to work with local girls. There, she saw the widespread dangers of domestic violence and sexual assault women face all too frequently.
Three years later, Hutchinson began the Vision Not Victim Project which uses photography to impact the lives of girls in poverty. Girls understand the difficulties associated with poor health care and corrupt leadership. Even more, they have their own ideas about how to make positive changes in their community.
“I believe that as much as photographs help us understand terrible truths about war and poverty, as in Congo, they can also help us see the world in a new light: they can showcase our triumphant moments, illuminate role models and create positive visions of the future.”
Here’s how it works: girls ranging in ages 11 to 16, with the help of female leaders from their community, talk about their goals and design a vision for the future. Girls then sketch a tangible picture that represents these goals and the program gets to work recreating it in a photoshoot.
During each session, Hutchinson has noticed the confidence that builds for girls when they see their goals play out before them. Just by providing some props and an appropriate location, participants ‘try on their future’ with courage and grace.
This is promising. As young women, these girls play a very important part in the future of their community and their own lives. True, a photograph is not a final solution, but it does work to propel them in the right direction. Seeing pictures of themselves achieving their goals is very motivating.
Once the photographs are printed, girls share them with their families and community. It can inspire others to envision their own goals as well as realize the potential of young women.
These photographs also have the ability to motivate people in developed countries. It puts faces to the disasters. People are reminded that when they donate to aid groups, they are improving the lives of real people working towards a brighter future for the whole world.
The Vision Not Victim program has worked with girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo and girls in Jordan as Syrian refugees. It is being spread to other developing countries and even for refugee girls resettled in the United States.
– Lilian Sickler
Sources: International Rescue Committee, USAID, The Daily Beast, Women in Foreign Policy
Photo: The Daily Beast
How the SHEVA Company is Helping Girls Stay in School
In developing countries, girls often miss school or drop out entirely when they begin menstruating. Many are reluctant to tackle this issue because of the taboo that still surrounds menstruation, but it is a widespread problem that affects the education of millions of girls worldwide. In India, girls’ schools often lack functioning toilets, and in Burkina Faso and Niger, there are usually no places at schools for girls to change sanitary pads or dispose of waste. In Ghana, inadequate sanitation facilities, lack of access to sanitary products and physical discomforts related to menstruation, such as cramps, cause girls to miss an average of five days of school over the course of any given month.
Girls who drop out of school continue to struggle throughout their lives. They are more likely to marry and engage in sexual activity earlier. Because they are also less likely to use contraception, they typically have more children than girls who complete their schooling. This can trap them in the cycle of poverty. When girls miss school because of menstruation, they are held back from many opportunities by a completely natural physical process that should never have to interfere with their education.
That’s why SHEVA, a company launched in October 2014 by Marisabel Ruiz, is currently working in Guatemala to provide girls with sanitary hygiene products. Ruiz, who was born in Guatemala, decided to start these efforts in her native country because she already had connections there that could help SHEVA to reach more girls. Women can go to SHEVA’s website to purchase a variety of products, such as pads from familiar brands like Kotex and Playtex, or other items related to sexual health like condoms and pregnancy tests. With every purchase, SHEVA donates a month’s supply of sanitary pads to a girl in need.
SHEVA has also partnered with the organization Abriendo Oportunidades to provide health education to girls. They have created a two-year program that primarily focuses on what menstruation is, personal hygiene and women’s rights.
So far, SHEVA has provided sanitary pads to 300 girls, and 25 girls have enrolled in the educational program. A total of 5 million people have accessed free educational information on their website. Their next goal is to teach girls to make sanitary pads on their own, using biodegradable, locally available materials such as banana fibers.
Currently, only people in the U.S. can order from SHEVA’s website, but they plan to expand both their shipping and on-the-ground services to other countries in order to help as many girls as possible. SHEVA’s support for girls has helped them continue pursuing their education and has taught many that menstruation is nothing to be ashamed of.
– Jane Harkness
Sources: Girl Effect, Mashable, Menstrual Hygiene Day, SHEVA
Urbanization Is Causing A New Kind of Poverty Around the World
While the goal of urbanization is to create prosperity, the opposite often occurs. Urban areas, compared to rural areas, are homes to extreme wealth disparities because the poor and wealthy are closer together. This closeness inevitably leads to severe discrimination that can influence social makeups, access to public services, or general treatment of separate economically, racially, or geographically different groups.
Urban conflict more so disrupts dense populations because it poses a greater public risk than previously in rural populations. Targeting populations based on geographical areas is also more difficult in cities where people are more mobile with their residency.
The urban poor experience a different set of challenges, mainly due to higher population densities and consequent unequal access to resources. According to The Guardian, urban hazards include low-quality infrastructure, higher risk of disease infestations, pollutants, toxicity, traffic-related injuries, diet-related illnesses due to street food and lower quality of selection, and sensitivity to poor levels in a poor economy. Hunger and malnutrition are more sensitive to economic well being and price fluctuations. The larger competition also negatively affects the share of people in poverty in urban areas versus in rural areas.
So far, 54 percent of the world lives in urban areas. This grew from a 30 percent rate in 1950. Urbanization is predicted to cause the population to rise to 66 percent in 2050. Asia and Africa will likely experience the sharpest rate increase, as their current populations are mostly rural. Today, the two countries’ urban populations are around 40 to 48 percent, but they may become 56 to 64 percent in 2050.
The global rural population is currently at three point four billion but is expected to decline to two point three billion by 2050. Largely in part of Africa and Asia’s transforming urban population in the years to come since now, they house nearly 90 percent of the world’s rural population.
– Lin Sabones
Sources: China.org.cn, The Guardian UN, UNDESA, UNFPA,
Photo: Flickr
Eliminating Poverty with Sustained Economic Reform
In recent years, sustained economic growth in the Philippines has brought more jobs and improvements in living conditions for the country’s poor population. Over the course of just one year, more than a million jobs were created. What is more, unemployment is also at the lowest rate that it has been in ten years.
World Bank leading Economist Rogier van den Brink stated, “If growth is sustained at 6 percent per year and the current rate at which growth reduces poverty is maintained, poverty could be eradicated within a single generation”. In order to achieve this goal, however, key structural reforms will need to be sustained and sped up.
The most important structural reforms to focus on will be increasing investments in infrastructure, health and education, enhancing competition, simplifying regulations to promote job creation, and protecting property rights.
Back in January, the World Bank’s Philippine Economic Update was released, with the theme “Making Growth Work for the Poor.” The report lists the aforementioned goals and recommends rationalizing tax incentives by making them more targeted, transparent, performance-based, and temporary.
The potential success of continued reforms depends hugely on strengthening tax administration and improving the transparency and accountability of government spending. Once the Filipino population can agree with the manner in which their tax dollars are being spent, the new growth cycle can perpetuate itself accordingly.
During a press conference, Mr. Ven den Brink was probed on the Philippines’ lower-than-expected growth in Gross Domestic Product during the first quarter. He responded by explaining that since 2013, it has become much easier to see the way that even slow economic growth can directly reduce poverty.
Ven den Brink explained that regardless of the specific GDP number, what really matters is how that growth affects the poorest people. According to the World Bank economist, household and labor survey data all paint the same poverty-reducing picture.
While it is true that slow-moving government spending has limited the growth of the Philippine economy during the first quarter of the year, significant changes in poverty still pervade. Rates of underemployment and poverty are decreasing, and the lowest real income is growing 20-30 percent faster than the rest of the country.
Van den Brink also noted that the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer program has been a key poverty-reducing tool. The program gives out payments every month to the poorest households, which has successfully helped to lift entire families out of the poverty cycle.
Although some remain skeptical, poverty elimination in the Philippines is starting to seem like more of a feasible reality. This could be a major milestone not only for the Philippines, but for all of those involved in the global fight against poverty. Sustained economic growth could finally level the playing field, once and for all.
– Sarah Bernard
Sources: Business World, InterAksyon, World Bank
Photo: Flickr
For Bangladesh Refugees, Salvation in a Former Disaster Zone
Thailand has recently cracked down on human trafficking rings, especially after finding mass graves in the jungles on the border with Malaysia. Because of this, the Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian governments refused to allow smuggling ships to land on their shores, causing thousands of refugees to find themselves adrift at sea on boats with little resources or food.
However, the people of Aceh, a city in Indonesia, could not ignore the suffering of these refugees. They allowed the boats to land on their shores, defying their government and welcoming the burden of 2,000 starving, impoverished people. Many Acehnese have suffered decades of political turmoil as well as the 2004 tsunami that caused immeasurable damage. Many refugees settled at a port called Kuala Langsa, which is currently housing 425 Bangladeshi and 231 Rohingya migrants. “I feel that they are part of our family, part of Acehnese society, because they have suffered as much as us. It’s better if they stay permanently here,” says a Aceh native and restaurant owner who has provided meals to the refugees. Many agree, saying Aceh is the safest place for them to settle.
The citizens of Aceh even held a concert to help raise funds for the recent migrants. The event was organized by Rafly, a local singer and political figure. It was also a Pemulia Jamee, or traditional Indonesian ceremony to honor guests. Rafly has remarked that he hopes the migrants stay in Aceh.
Before successful landing in Aceh, migrants say they were turned away by the Thai government three times and the Malaysian government twice. The second refusal by the Malaysian government came with a threat that it would bomb their ship if they did not turn away.
Back in Bangladesh, prospects for change are bleak. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina calls the Rohingya “mentally sick” and “tainting the image of the country” by escaping their government-controlled impoverishment, which limits their access to medical care and education. Rohyinga people are Muslim and reside in Rakhine state in western Myanmar. 140,000 remain in tent camps since their hometowns were destroyed by state-sanctioned fundamentalist Buddhists who view the Rohingya as Bangladeshi settlers.
Shortly after Aceh welcomed its refugees, Malaysia and Indonesia issued a statement saying the two countries would provide food and shelter to the 7,000 people who remained floating on the Straits of Malacca, provided these people seek permanent homes after a year.
– Jenny Wheeler
Sources: IRIN, Aljazeera
Photo: NY Daily News
United Nations Reduces Global Poverty
The United Nations set a goal to reduce global poverty and did – overwhelmingly so. In 2000, 191 countries of the U.N. created the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight goals that sought to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015.
Since then, the Goals have helped 700 million people overcome extreme poverty. From 1990 to 2010, the efforts of the U.N. reduced global poverty by half, five years before the target date. Today, the amount of undernourished people in developing countries has decreased from 23 percent in 1990-92 to 14 percent.
Furthermore, the U.N. wanted to see universal primary education. By 2010, enrollment in primary school had reached 90 percent, an eight percent increase from 1999. By 2012, the number of children not attending school had declined by two million.
Such successes have been achieved not only through foreign aid but also through several programs that teach impoverished communities to lead sustainable lives.
This September, the U.N. will meet again to develop new goals and advance old ones for international development through 2030. The global goals, called the Sustainable Development Goals, are shaped to end extreme global poverty, fight gender inequalities and address climate change. One objective for the next 15 years is to lift another 1.2 billion people out of poverty.
Additionally, the new set of goals will address the 842 million people that remain hungry, as well as the unfortunately high number of children that are not receiving a proper education. Though the number of children in school today is at its highest, 126 million youth between the ages of 15 and 24 remain illiterate.
Unquestionably, the U.N. has made a significantly positive difference in the reduction of global poverty since 1990, having met or exceeded several criteria from the Millennium Development Goals. However, the fight against global poverty is not over, and the U.N. will continue to fight until it is completely eradicated.
– Sarah Sheppard
Sources: UN MDGs, SF Chronicle, The Global Goals
Photo: Child Fund
Ghana: A Poverty Success Story
Through a carefully crafted recipe of World Bank support, social protection, and government intervention, Ghana has been able to overcome major economic and societal hurdles. It was the first in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty and hunger ahead of the 2015 deadline.
Kulyk originally recommended a reverse mission between the World Bank and Ghana under Ghana’s Social Protection program. This was the first of its kind in the history of the World Bank’s relations with Ghana. Its theme, “Safety nets in Ghana- Innovation and Successes,” helped guide anti-poverty action in the right direction.
Currently, the World Bank supports Social Protection interventions in Ghana through an $88.6 million Social Opportunities Project. Additionally, $50 million is financed for ongoing projects, making the Bank’s total contribution $138.6 million. In the future, the Bank will continue to help reverse Ghana’s poverty situation.
In terms of social protection, there are forty-four programs targeting extremely poor individuals, households, and entire communities in Ghana. For Ghana’s most vulnerable and severely marginalized, these mechanisms bring the social assistance and capacity enhancement needed to break out of poverty.
The government is currently working to ensure that the living conditions of Ghana’s poor population are improved through social intervention programs. Specifically, labor-intensive programs implemented across sixty districts will soon be scaled up in order to achieve the best poverty-reducing and livelihood-improving results.
In countries like Bangladesh, Mexico, and Ghana, regular cash and asset transfers to the poor have helped alleviate poverty by securing food needs and improving access to health and education. Additionally, small, regular income transfers enable the poor to make small investments — a hugely important step in poverty reduction.
It is important to note that while Ghana has successfully cut poverty in half, nine years from now approximately 6 million people will still live in poverty, with 2.2 million living in extreme poverty. Although this does not negate the significance of what has already been achieved, it is a crucial reminder of what is to come.
It is true that there is no perfect model for poverty alleviation. However, there are certainly key elements of focus that have consistently brought the most significant results. By adhering to this wide-reaching, gradually emerging poverty-fighting recipe, Ghana has made leaps and bounds in its poverty fight.
The most common poverty-fighting packages include some combination of microcredit financial aid, public works, training, agricultural extension services, financial literacy and links to credit units. In other African countries like Rwanda, childhood development and childcare services have become key areas of focus too.
Poverty is a complex issue that can be attacked from an infinite number of points. Depending on the time, place, and people involved, target areas fluctuate in terms of severity and significance. Still, at the most basic level, there is a lot to be learned from such success stories. Hopefully, Ghana’s model will spur more like its kind.
– Sarah Bernard
Sources: Graphic Online, allAfrica
Photo: Flickr
China’s Ambitious Plan for its Higher Education System
While the interview was later revealed to be a fabrication by hackers, it still garnered enough attention to challenge the effectiveness of Chinese higher education, now the largest system of tertiary education in the world. The question remains though: Are the claims true?
As the report claims, China’s education style is, in a way, old fashioned. China has long favored memorization and exams for its education. This tradition dates all the way back to the 7th century, when China’s growing bureaucracy created the challenging keju exam system in order to select the best administrators. More than a millennium has passed, but the importance of the exam in Chinese education remains.
The college entrance exams, or the gaokao, a modern form of the ancient keju, serves as the single admission criteria for all Chinese universities. It has become a national obsession for college-bound students. In order to succeed on these intensely rigorous tests, the college hopeful have resorted to “cram-schools,” which fill the hours between school and bedtime with studying. On weekends, some 20,000 students will arrive at certain cram schools at 6:20 in the morning only to return home over 14 hours later.
The college admissions process has also received criticism for its bias and discrimination. Reports have suggested that more wealthy, urban students from influential cities like Shanghai and Beijing are 41 times more likely to be admitted to Peking University compared to more rural and poorer students from the province of Anhui.
Not surprisingly, more testing means Chinese students spend more time in classrooms than their Western peers. While more than one-third of Chinese college students experience 30 hours of class time a week, the average UK college student spends 14 hours equally working inside and outside of the classroom. In comparison, 40 percent of Chinese college students spend less than five hours working outside of class.
The Chinese obsession with tests corresponds to the increasing attendance and funding among the country’s colleges. In 1999, the Chinese government expanded its education system in order to jumpstart its stagnant economy. The number of graduating students has spiked since then. In 2003 there were 2.12 million university graduates in China, with almost 7 million a decade later, according to government estimates.
However, this investment in education has not entirely paid off. As more and more Chinese have enrolled in universities, China has found its economy actually decelerating, albeit in small amounts. Recent graduates have also struggled with employment, with only 35 percent having found employment. Post-graduate students fare even worse, with only 26 percent having found employment.
While China has invested greatly in its own higher education, its best universities still cannot hold a candle to those elsewhere, particularly in the West. This has led a large number of Chinese students to seek more valuable college educations abroad to get an edge in an increasingly difficult domestic job market. More than 3 million Chinese students have chosen to study abroad and they represent 20 percent of international students from OECD countries.
These international students often do not return home. In fact, according to a study, 85 percent of Chinese students who earned their doctorate in America in 2006 were still there five years later. With so many potential academics and intellectuals not returning to the country, many proclaim that China has a “brain-drain.” Only recently have Chinese citizens begun to win Nobel prizes for work done in their home country.
To entice its many expatriate academics back to their homeland, China has offered generous benefits. Those who return can expect free housing, a 1 million Yuan bonus and state-of-the-art facilities. The results were exceptional: From 2005 to 2012, published research articles from universities rose by 54 percent, with patents increasing eightfold. However, returning professors still have to work in an academic environment that restricts their research. Currently, the Chinese government plays a major role in directing research and rewards academics for the quantity of articles published rather than their quality.
Yet the sheer amount of money China has invested in its higher education system should guarantee results, a Harvard Business Review article stressed. It predicted that China will soon produce the most PhDs of any country in the world and lauded the increasing productivity of its professors.
The question still remains as to whether or not China can innovate and compete in both the realms of business and education. While perhaps less revered and creative, China’s universities are pioneering a controversial yet forward-looking path. To those guiding this burgeoning system, quantity has a quality of its own.
– Andrew Logan
Sources: The Economist, Harvard Business Review, New York Times 1, New York Times 2, Times Higher Education, TIME, University of Buffalo
Photo: New York Times