Clever Chinese Children

         

“It is the LORD who gives wisdom; from him come knowledge and understanding.”                                               Proverbs 2:6

             

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a test using by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure the scholastic performance of pupils aged 15 around the world on Reading, Mathematics and Science. It was first performed in 2000 and repeated every three years. The scores from each test have been increasingly used for policy planning in many countries to improve the education system and the quality of education.

                In 2009, there were 470,000 pupils aged 15 years old from 65 nations and territories participated in the PISA test and in 2010; an additional 50,000 pupils representing 9 nations were tested.

The top 10 scores and countries of PISA 2009 results are as follows:

No.	Reading	scores	Mathematics	scores	Science	scores
1	China: Shanghai	556	China: Shanghai	600	China: Shanghai	575
2	Korea	539	Singapore	562	Finland	554
3	Finland	536	Hong Kong	555	Hong Kong	549
4	Hong Kong	533	Korea	546	Singapore	542
5	Singapore	526	Chinese Taipei	543	Japan	539
6	Canada	524	Finland	541	Korea	538
7	New Zealand	521	Liechtenstein	536	New Zealand	532
8	Japan	520	Switzerland	534	Canada	529
9	Australia	515	Japan	529	Estonia	528
10	Netherlands	508	Canada	527	Australia	527
49	Romania	424	Chile	421	Thailand	425
50	Thailand	421	Mexico	419	Mexico	416
51	Trinidad&T.	416	Thailand	419	Jordan	415
	Reading		Mathematics		Science
	PISA  average	493	PISA  average	496	PISA  average	501

Thailand ranked 49 in Science with a score of 425 while the average score of PISA in this subject is 501 and the top ranking are pupils from Shanghai, China with scores of 575. Thai students placed 50th in reading with 421 scores lower than the average score of 493 in this subject and children from Shanghai are at the top place again with 556 scores. In mathematics area Thai students came in the 51th place with 419 scores while the average scores of this subject is 496 and again Shanghai’s students came in the top rank with high scores of 600. In conclusion, Thai students made scores under the average in all subjects.

It is noted that apart from students from mainland China who are in the top ranks, students from China: Hong Kong and China: Taipei are also placed in the top ten.       

Mr. Andreas Schleicher, an administrator from OECD who is responsible for the PISA test commented that China has an education system that is overtaking many Western countries and this clearly provides the most significant insight into how it is teaching the next generation incredible resilience. Students in nine provinces of China, including poor, middle-income and wealthier regions scored quite well. Chinese students in rural areas and in disadvantaged environments that have the tough backgrounds and the high levels of equity between the rich and the poor have incredible ability of resilience to success. What has helped the education in China develop rapidly probably comes from the deeply rooted philosophy that education is the key to success and an investment for the future.

        President Barack Obama gave his observation that “We (Americans) need to out-educate today or other countries will out-compete us tomorrow.” American students came in the 17th rank in area of reading, the 23rd place in science and the 31st place in mathematics in the latest PISA test.

        Having reading this article, I would like everyone to seriously consider improving the Thai education system. If we still leave our children to the responsibility of schools alone by paying under table expenses to the demanding schools as we have seen by the fasting protest of students against the unjust admission in Bangkok, it is doubtful that Thailand will be able to compete with any country in the future

John Dewey said “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”

What do you think? L Amen