The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s PISA report is arguably the most informative statement on the state of formal schooling worldwide. PISA stands for Programme for International Student Assessment which looks at the academic performance of 15-year-olds in some 65 countries in the areas of mathematics, reading and science.
The prime revelation in the recently published 2012 survey is the superior performance of the Far Eastern countries, more specifically Shanghai-China, South Korea, Singapore and Japan.
What is equally revealing is the relatively weak performance of students in the United States and Britain. In England the report noted that schools were up to three years behind their peers in the Far East in Maths. Overall out of the 65 countries surveyed, British schools ranked 26th in maths, 23rd in reading and 21st in science, indicating no improvement over the past six years. British education performance was said to be flatlining in spite of a significant increase in expenditure on formal schooling.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, in the decade between 1999-2000 and 2009-2010, spending on education in Britain grew by 5.1 per cent per year in real terms. The cumulative expenditure per student between age five and 15 stands at a staggering £195 502 or £59 825; the OECD average being £50 889. American schools ranked 17th in Reading, 24th in Science and 26th in Mathematics, leading Education Secretary, Arnie Duncan to note that this was a wake-up call for America and Joel Klein and Chancellor on New York City’ Department of Education, warned that the States would pay a high price if things did not change.
The big question in the discourse since the publication of the report is: What accounts for the relatively poor performance of British and American schools vis-à-vis their Far-Eastern counterparts? There are few spheres of human endeavour where outcomes are dependent on so many variables as formal schooling. What appears to be the overwhelmingly preponderant factor is the culture in which the educational systems function. The Far East states seem to have one thing in common; highly efficacious learning cultures with a strong student work ethic. Tom Friedman of The New York Times opined that the Far Eastern states have “a culture of learning” where children “come to school willing and eager to learn”.
Daryl Orchard, headmaster of Dulwich College, an elite British school, makes the pivotal point that educational systems are products of social cultures and he warned against making comparisons. He too stressed the superiority of Far Eastern learning cultures noting that “for families in Korea education is everything. Parents and grandparents take an active interest in education throughout their children’s lives”.
Some other factors have emerged from the survey. Take school attendance, for example. A student in Shanghai-China spends on average 50 more days in school per year than a student in Massachusetts, 180 in the latter, compared to 230 in Shanghai-China. But time-spend is only part of the problem. Tom Friedman who is extremely critical of the culture of American schools noted that in United States generally speaking, kids do not do their homework; they don’t come to school prepared to learn, there are too many distractions including Twitter and Facebook and an inordinate emphasis on sport in schools and colleges.
Education is that which takes place in the interface between teaching and learning. In this respect the discipline and the general ethos of any school is critical in determining cognitive and affective outcomes. The Far East schools outperform the West because the disciplines are superior. Discipline-wise the worse schools in Singapore would be the envy of some of the better schools in America.
The children in many Japanese schools clasp their hands and bow to the teachers when they enter the classroom. In contrast Allison Pearson of The Telegraph writes that in Britain “children can tell the teacher to eff-off without fear of reprisal”. She concluded that: “It is not possible to directly import practices from Asia because they are dependent upon attitudes, behaviours and values that are not commonly found in the UK.”
Another key factor accounting for the superior performance of Far Eastern schools is the comparatively high status and performance of teachers. Schools in Korea and Singapore co-opt the better quality graduates of the universities. Teachers are well trained before they enter the classroom and overall the teaching profession is among the most highly valued within the society as a whole. In too many western countries, teaching has become a devalued job, so much so that in the literature it is sometimes termed “a blue-collar” profession to distinguish it from the more prestigious “white-collar” professions.
The tinkerers will continue to tinker, as The Telegraph writer noted, British education is hindered by a burning desire to innovate without necessarily knowing what it is that is being innovated. The reality may be that to really improve education we must first improve civil society.
Ralph Jemmott is a retired educator and social commentator; email rajemmott@caribsurf.com