The Pros and Cons of a Chinese-style Education

Are you for or against a Chinese-style education？ Everyone has a different answer. For a long time， it seems， the critics are in the majority. Many single out the failures of test-oriented education for its singular focus on scores and academic performance. Creativity， the argument goes， is stifled.

Nonetheless， in recent international surveys of national education standards， Chinese students have excelled. In December 2010， the Paris-headquartered OECD （Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development） published the results of its 2009 Program for International Student Assessment （PISA）. Shanghai students scored highly across the board.

PISA focused on the reading and mathematical abilities and scientific knowledge of 15-year-old students. The project was conducted in 34 OECD membership and 31 non-official membership countries and regions. As many as 470，000 students around the world participated. Shanghai was the first city in Chinas mainland to be involved in the project， and 5，115 students from 152 schools took the exams.

After the result was revealed – and Shanghai students had left everyone in the dust – there was fierce debate in the U.S. media about the quality of American education. Many held it was falling behind， and that the country was “losing the education race.” This debate continued and spilled over into vitriol in 2011 when Amy Chua of Yale University released her Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Her so-called Chinese-style education， which involves strict discipline， emphasis on rote memorization and long hours of practice and study generated a furor in the U.S. – and in China as well. Was the system Chua described really a “Chinese-style education”？ Or was it a relic of the past， inherited by Chua from her immigrant parents？

The evidence has it that whatever a Chinese-style education is， it does help students excel in math and science. The PISA results prove that much. But they also suggest that Chinese educators need to reassess their approach. Buried down in the Shanghai report was the assessment that Chinese students are required to study for long hours in order to hold their own amid fierce competition. Chinese students therefore spend much less time on sports， music and other activities unrelated to exams than their foreign peers.

The China Youth & Children Research Center has been monitoring the schoolwork of middle and primary schools across the country for years. In 1999， about 50 percent of respondents were burdened with extra study requirements that led to sleep deprivation. Now， this figure is closer to 80 percent.

Educators and school administrators have introduced policies to tackle the problem. While homework remains necessary for the later years of high school， in junior years it is now discouraged or even banned in some regions. Besides concrete policy， greater numbers of educators and parents are discovering “happy learning，” whereby the focus of education shifts away from tests to the development of creativity and an emphasis on all-rounded learning.

Primary schools are one thing， but when it comes to college enrollment in China， the pressure really piles up. The college entrance examinations are cutthroat， and its very rare indeed to find a student who doesnt burn the midnight oil in the run-up to examination week.

But even the college entrance examination system is changing. Many universities have taken the initiative in holding independent examinations to test students. Others have begun accepting student recommendations from high school principals. These developments arent mainstream yet， but are certainly a welcome step on the road to exploring different modes of assessment.

Amy Chua used to tell the media that she thought Western-style education put too much emphasis on creativity， while Chinese-style education won the day with its focus on discipline and hard work. Most media outlets would cut her off there. For those that didnt， she added that both styles of education should be employed to make sure kids grow up endowed with both creativity and industriousness in spades. East and West， as always， work best together.