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Education overhaul

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-07 08:07

The Chinese government is beginning to be serious about reforming the nation's education system. The State Council has now selected the schools that will participate in a pilot project.

The reform project covers education at all levels from pre-school to college and encompasses occupational and private institutions.

The pilot project will probably be limited to just a few provinces and autonomous regions at first and is likely to focus initially on equal access to primary and middle schools, education for the children of migrant workers, the quality of rural teaching and modernizing the management of colleges.

A high-profile organization has been set up, designated to supervise the reform project. The head of the organization claimed that the nation's education reform is on such a stage that new issues are the barriers. There is no easy fix.

China's education needs sweeping reform. The pilot project aims high. It includes overhauling how schools operate - from what's happening inside classrooms to how teachers should be managed and who can go to college.

Education is a complicated and difficult nut to crack. But it is an issue that the government needs to deal with properly. The dramatic reform proposals are a good place to start.

However, as development races forward, it's not happening equitably in every place at once. The nation's richer east, with its greater ease of access, traditionally receives more investment than the predominantly poorer rural west.

The same applies between urban and rural areas across the country as the division of wealth affects the standard of education received.

It is an old story that rural kids drop out along the way, relegated to lower-income jobs, many without hope of advancement. Clearly, decades of Band-Aids have been peeled away to reveal a flawed education system. If the education reform does not go well, our society will suffer in countless ways.

A major overhaul is needed, and while it may sound dramatic, the very future of the nation depends on it.

To make China globally competitive around the world, the nation's education system needs to produce more highly skilled college graduates and more creative thinkers.

We need students who don't just achieve good test scores because they've memorized material but because they understand their subjects and know how to develop their skills. We may need fewer, but more relevant, tests that can gauge whether young Chinese are learning instead of memorizing.

Let's wish the upcoming overhaul of the nation's education system is not just throwing a big rock into a pond. We're expecting really good ideas from it, and more importantly, ideas that can be realized for the good of the country.