China Needs More Creativity
As it shifts from being the world's factory to a source of innovation
Pearson China |
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Significant milestones
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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:
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