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Friday, March 20, 2015

China Needs More Creativity - Pearson's commitment to China began over forty years ago

China Needs More Creativity - Bloomberg Business:

China Needs More Creativity
As it shifts from being the world's factory to a source of innovation




Pearson China

Pearson China
Suite 1208, Tower D,
Beijing Global Trade Center
36 North Third Ring Road East
Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100013
China
Tel +86 10 5735 5000
Fax +86 10 5825 7950
www.pearsoned.com.cn
www.edexcelchina.com 
www.nyif.com.cn

Sina Weibo:
http://weibo.com/pearsonhk

Edexcel has two accounts on Weibo (China's equivalent of Twitter):
http://weibo.com/edexcelbtec
http://weibo.com/edexcelalevels

Pearson's commitment to China began over forty years ago with a partnership in the 1960s that has continued to grow and strengthen into the 21st century. With offices in cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Pearson has an unprecedented broad and in-depth presence in China.

Pearson's businesses in China include Education Publishing and Solutions, Edexcel, New York Institute of Finance, Pearson Test of English, Longman Schools, Global Education, and Wall Street English.

For more information on Pearson Test of English Academic in Chinese, please clickhere. (The English version is available here.)

Edexcel has been operating in China for 13 years. Through more than a decade of developing, promoting and adapting qualifications, we have established partnerships with over 80 Chinese schools, colleges, universities and training centres all over China.

The Pearson Foundation and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has produced an investigative film series that documents successful education initiatives currently improving student learning in classrooms around the world. To see the Shanghai, China video, click here.

Significant milestones
1995First Pearson office is set up.
1996The Education Inspection Office, Beijing Municipal Government, introduces BTEC L3 qualification to five secondary vocational schools in Beijing.
2001Start of co-publishing business in China.
2002The Higher National Diploma, one of the most popular BTEC qualifications around the world, is brought into China.
Aug 2003The Official Edexcel Representative Office in China is opened.
2004Pearson China co-publishes English course"新課標英語" for Senior Secondary with Beijing Normal University.
2005Pearson China signs mutual agreement with the MOE for education publishing. Edexcel signs a MoU with the Beijing Municipal Education Commission for the promotion of BTEC HNDs.
2006Edexcel co-hosts the "China-English Seminar for Higher Level Vocational Education Cooperation' with the China Scholarship Council.
2007Pearson China receives award for best co-publishing partner by the Microsoft Research Center in China. New York Institute of Finance office is opened in Beijing.
2008Pearson China receives "突出貢獻獎"award from the MOE (Outstanding Contribution Award).
2009Pearson acquires Wall Street English. Pearson is named by China Daily 21 Century Post as the most influential English education publishing company and co-publishing international company. Edexcel starts promoting A Levels to local Chinese schools and has seen rapid growth since.
2011Pearson acquires Global Education.


 As China's economy boomed, so did advances in education.

Enrollment rates in schools at all levels soared, with 7.5 million students set to graduate this year alone. The OECD’s PISA scores measuring 15-year olds’ competence in math, reading and science have ranked Shanghai top worldwide ever since the city started participating in the program.





A glowing report card, right? Wrong.
As China moves from being the world's factory to a source of innovation, it needs to shake up the way its students learn and remove lingering inequalities, according to the OECD.    
The problems:
* The children of internal migrants as well as rural and poor families are still at a major disadvantage at every education level
* The focus on rote learning and exams remains excessive
* More bridges are needed between vocational and general education
* Graduating students often struggle to find a job matching their expectations and employers do not always find people with the required skills
* Despite a soaring number of Chinese patents, the quality of most patents is still low and innovation output is weak
Then there's a skills mismatch, with too many white-collar workers and not enough young people willing to get their hands dirty.




Now the OECD's prescriptions:
* More and better focused funding of education, giving greater opportunities to children with socio-economic or physical disadvantages
* Reducing the role of after-school tutoring, focusing less on memorization and more on creativity
* Enhancing the appeal of the teaching profession
* Improving students’ information on labor market prospects
* Developing workplace training, making greater use of online education, and more effectively nurturing research and innovation





The OECD's bottom line: "Human capital accumulation has played a large role in China’s economic catch-up over the last three decades as educational attainment made rapid progress. It is becoming even more crucial now to bring about further improvements in living standards in the face of an aging population and to provide the right skills needed to transition from the world’s factory to a leading innovator.''China Needs More Creativity - Bloomberg Business:
Anthony Cody: A Remarkable Statement by a Chinese-American Student on Common Core, Testing, Pearson, and Standardiz... http://bit.ly/1FLis4X