China's education plan ... from Finland's playbook
By: Allen Wastler | Managing Editor, CNBC.com
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XiXinXing | Getty Images
If you think the business competition from China is hard now, brace yourself. It will likely get tougher in about 20 years or so. And how is China doing it? By borrowing a page from Finland.
At first blush, though, it would appear that China is simply lightening up.
"The Ministry of Education plans to lessen the heavy workload," said CCTV, China's state television network explained in a post on the English version of its website.
Under the proposed guidelines, which are still under discussion, "primary schools may no longer set any form of written homework for students in grades one to six,"said CCTV, "Instead, schools should work with parents to organize extracurricular activities and after-school assignments, including museum tours and library study."
In addition, the new system would revamp scoring systems and reduce the number of mandatory exams.
Top Academic Performers
| Science | PISA Score | Reading | PISA Score | Math | PISA Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shanghai, China | 575 | Shanghai, China | 556 | Shanghai, China | 600 |
| Finland | 554 | Korea | 539 | Singapore | 562 |
| Hong Kong, China | 549 | Finland | 536 | Hong Kong, China | 555 |
| Singapore | 542 | Hong Kong, China | 533 | Korea | 546 |
| Japan | 539 | Singapore | 526 | Taiwan | 543 |
| United States | 502 | United States | 500 | United States | 487 |
Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
To be sure, China's current education system has produced some stellar results. In the OECD's latest Program for International Student Assessment exams, Shanghai