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A very Chinese revolution
China's education system is undergoing a radical overhaul almost overnight. What can we learn from their methods? Jessica Shepherd visits schools on the frontline ...
Tuesday December 4, 2007
Neon Chinese characters shine through the early morning smog covering Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province. A long way below, cyclists chance their luck cutting the paths of the taxis stacked on the city's third ring road.
To the right of the traffic, on land the size of two football pitches, 3,000 pupils from Xi'an middle school stand in neat rows waving their arms in tandem for zao cao - morning exercises.
At exactly 9am, the loudspeaker system is switched off. And without fuss, the 15- to 17-year-olds walk to their first lessons.
It has long been assumed in the west that Chinese schools encourage a collectivist mentality, are obsessed by exams, spoon-feed their students and are closed to links abroad.
But several of China's top schools - including this one - can now do much more than challenge these assumptions.
In elite schools, major shifts in government education policies are being implemented almost overnight and sustained by vast investment, producing experiments in education that would be deemed radical by western standards.
Education Guardian accompanied five UK secondary headteachers on a British Council trip to Beijing and Xi'an - their prize for winning the regional finals of the Teaching Awards 2006. The aim: to partner up with a Chinese school, see the rapid changes being made to the Chinese education system, and drool.
Avant-garde teaching is in action at another school, called Middle School Attached to Shaanxi Normal University (Shaanxi middle school). A group of four 15- and 16-year-olds are taking their peers' art lesson while their teacher observes their communication skills. At the end, pupils are asked to evaluate the lesson with an A, B, C or D grade. "This would be a radical departure from conventional teaching methods in the UK," says Geraint Rees, headteacher of Ysgol Plasmawr, a comprehensive in Cardiff.
It's all part of China's New Goals reforms. The plan is to overturn teaching methods in the Asian powerhouse, province by province. The education ministry wants to do away with decades of rote-learning in favour of groupwork, class discussions and role-play. The emphasis is on communication skills rather than fact-absorption.
On the Chinese education ministry's website, it says: "Quality education and moral education have gained a new momentum." Too right, says Zhang Fan, a teacher at Shaanxi middle school. He explains it in the terms of an ancient Chinese proverb. Showgen eeyu buru showgen eeyzu - It is better to teach someone how to fish, than to give them the fish."
The New Goals reforms are being rolled out with alarming speed, at least in the elite schools. In Shaanxi province, the reforms were introduced this September for senior one pupils, who are aged 15. Teachers at Fan's school had just five days to learn the new teaching methods of groupwork and role-play exercises, and to get used to new textbooks.
Chinese teachers admit they haven't found it easy. He Lina, an English teacher at Shaanxi middle school, says: "If you had come here last year, you wouldn't have seen this style of teaching. The students think more as a result, but they also find it tiring. It has been hard for everyone to make the jump." Li Hong, the vice-principal, can see its benefits. "Before the reforms, teachers told the children how to think. In five or 10 years' time, the pupils will have the spirit to learn by themselves." Xiqi Hou, a grade one English teacher, says: "Last year, I would have just been doing language exercises with the pupils and then explaining the answers. Now it is listening, writing and comprehension. We see the shortcomings of the previous system."
The Chinese government pledged last year, in its 11th five-year plan, to pour 14bn yuan (£920m) into vocational training between 2006 and 2010, and to skill an extra 36 million workers. It is a U-turn on previous policies, which cut the budget for vocational education. The government anticipates that the number of students in vocational schools will soon be equal to those in the more academic equivalent, senior high schools for 15- to 17-year-olds.
At Xi'an middle school, the heads are surprised to hear the headteacher, Wang Lanjun, explain how he has already sealed partnerships with schools in Japan, Italy, Korea, Australia and Singapore - and is looking for more.
"International links are the exception rather than the rule in UK schools," says Rosy Litawski, principal of The Ferrers Specialist Arts College, a comprehensive in Northamptonshire. Ge Wang, a 17-year-old student at Shaanxi middle school, is just one of the pupils who has spent a year abroad and hopes to go to university in the US. "I have to admit pupils at my school don't apply to universities abroad," says Litawski. "Now I'm wondering why not."
At Xi'an Bodi middle school, the heads ask for translations of the phrases in calligraphy that hang on the walls. "A tolerant person will have many friends" is one. "Contentment is the least I expect today" is another. Both are evidence of China's recent driveto emphasise traditional notions of proper conduct, familial duty, respect for others and social responsibility.
"China's children are getting clear messages about mental and social wellbeing. Our kids don't even think this way," says Rees. "We don't articulate principles associated with feelings like this. In UK schools, you are more likely to see 'effort reaps reward'."
It is reasonable to assume that we have been shown only the creme de la creme of China's schools. The Chinese education system has its faults, says Dr Ed Vickers, an expert on east Asian education at the Institute of Education, University of London. "The elitist bent of Chinese government education policy over most of the past quarter-century has tended to favour 'key' or 'model' schools. There is a growing socio-economic inequality between coast and hinterland, urban and rural areas, the east and the poorer west." However, the Chinese government claims that in 2005, 95% of the country was able to have the nine years of education it says are compulsory from the age of six. It says this was a 10% increase from 2000.
Vickers also criticises the Chinese government for promoting technological and scientific expertise, seen as directly contributing to economic growth, at the expense of more "humanistic" studies.
So, aside from the fact that the Chinese system has some serious flaws and that we have seen the best of the best, what do British headteachers think our system could learn from China's top schools?
"In China, it seems that if there is a weakness in the system, they deliver an agenda to change it very quickly," says Rees. "They trained their teachers in the New Goals reforms in just five days. Our wheels are slower to turn."
Sarah Dignasse, headteacher of the Plume school, a comprehensive in Essex, is impressed at the variety of vocational courses. "I think China has got it right with the emphasis on the occupational." Dignasse fears the new vocational diplomas, which will be introduced in UK schools and colleges from 2008, are not "occupational enough". Michael Lock, headteacher of Combe Pafford school in Devon, which takes six- to 16-year-olds with special educational needs, agrees. "The variety of courses the Chinese vocational school was offering shows that the country is to some extent ahead of us in terms of vocational training."
Bernard Smith, headteacher of Four Dwellings high school, a community school and comprehensive in Birmingham, has been struck by the international perspective of the Chinese students he has met. "I want to change my school so that my pupils think globally," he says. "They are going to compete in a global world. If they think their opportunities are just within the UK, they are limiting themselves." Dignasse agrees: "I want to find ways to make my students realise the world is bigger than they think. They are going to be competing for jobs in a global market and they need to understand just how many keen students their age there are."
The British Council says the number of Chinese schools with links to British schools has more than doubled in the past three years, from 76 in 2005 to 162 now.
"China is opening its doors wide and wants to learn," says the principal of Xi'an Railway Number One middle school. This is true in more ways than one. And we can learn from it, too.
How the system works
From six to 12, Chinese children attend primary school. At 12 they go to junior middle school, until 15. Their compulsory education is meant to end at 15. In poorer areas, it may end earlier. At 15, they take an exam and go to either a vocational school or the more academic senior high school, also sometimes called a middle school. Which university they go to will be determined by their score in the gaokao, the college entrance exam.
China v England
In China, there are 17.3 million pupils in primary schools, 50,000 pupils in special schools, 19.2 million in middle schools, 2.9 million in vocational schools and 8.7 million in senior high schools.
In England, there are 7.3 million pupils in state primary and secondary schools, of whom 4.1 million are in primary schools and 3.5 million in secondary schools.
Source: People's Education Press in China and the DCSF in the UK
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2221046,00.html