Shanghai has the world's smartest teens
Chinese students hit the books hard, and on the PISA survey, it pays off.Forget about Olympic or Asian Games gold medals, Shanghai teens are surpassing their counterparts in another arena: education.
Given in about 65 countries, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey is a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school students' scholastic performance, testing three key categories of ability: literacy, math and science.
It was first given in 2000 and is repeated every three years. The test is coordinated by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Students in Shanghai excelled in reading literacy with the highest mean score, according to a report released by the Paris-based organization on Tuesday, scoring 556, ahead of South Korea, which took second place with 539.
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Shanghai students also scored number one in math skills, leaving even second-ranked Singapore far behind. More than a quarter of the students in Shanghai demonstrated “advanced mathematical thinking skills to solve complex problems, compared to an OECD average of just three percent," said the organization.
In science, Shanghai students scored 575, again a top score, with Finland in second place with 554 points.
This was the first time China participated in the exam, choosing 5,100 15-year-olds living in Shanghai to take the test.
Test administrators admit to TIME that scores from one city don’t represent an entire country, but Shanghai’s excellence across the board is clearly attracting attention, and to many it is yet another sign of China’s increasing modernization, with Shanghai leading the way.
“I’ve seen how relentless the Chinese are at accomplishing goals, and if they can do this in Shanghai in 2009, they can do it in 10 cities in 2019, and in 50 cities by 2029,” said Chester E. Finn Jr., who served in President Ronald Reagan’s Department of Education, and had visited schools all across China, to the New York Times.
Shanghai students’ score are also a reflection of the city’s growing emphasis on teacher training.
Detractors point out that one reason students do better on exams such as the PISA is that they spend more time studying, to the exclusion of other extracurricular activities, which have their own benefits that might not necessarily be measured on a scholastic tests.
The other downside mentioned by some about the Chinese system is scores like these also reflect the fierce competition in Shanghai for entry to higher educational institutions, creating an unhealthy environment around important test like the gaokao, the three-day university exam for Chinese students.
"We introduced school curricula that placed importance on how to apply students' accumulated knowledge, which is linked to university entrance examinations," a Shanghai city official said.
In Shanghai, even before the gaokao, annual school entrance exams have become highly competitive events, with more and more bright students going for the same number of spots.
In addition to increasing stress on the students, schools and even teachers are feeling the push to have their students succeed, after receiving additional income and benefits if high numbers of students from a particular class or school move on to prestigious higher eduction institutions, reports one Japanese paper.
