So we are all exam machines?
Education
Great up to a point
Singapore's students are brilliant in math-science tests; American
kids test much worse but do better in the real world. Why? Fareed
Zakaria, Newsweek
Jan 6, 2006
Last week India was hit by a terror attack that unsettled the
country. A gunman entered the main conference hall of the Indian
Institute of Science in Bangalore, tossed four grenades into the
audience and, when the explosives failed, fired his AK-47 at the
crowd.
One man, a retired professor of mathematics from one of the Indian
Institutes of Technology, was killed. What has worried some about
this attack is not its scope or planning or effect-all
unimpressive-but the target.
The terrorists went after what is increasingly seen as India's core
strategic asset for the 21st century: its scientific and
technological brain trust. If that becomes insecure, what will
become of India's future?
This small event says a lot about global competition. Travelling
around Asia for most of the past month, I have been struck by the
relentless focus on education.
It makes sense. Many of these countries have no natural resources,
other than their people; making them smarter is the only path for
development. China, as always, appears to be moving fastest.
When officials there talk about their plans for future growth, they
point out that they have increased spending on colleges and
universities almost ten-fold in the past 10 years.
Yale's president, Richard Levin, notes that Peking University's two
state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication lines-each employing a
different technology-outshine anything in the United States.
East Asian countries top virtually every global ranking of students
in science and mathematics.
But one thing puzzles me about these oft-made comparisons. I talked
to Tharman Shanmugaratnam to understand it better. He's the
minister of Education of Singapore, the country that is No. 1 in
the global science and math rankings for schoolchildren.
I asked the minister how to explain the fact that even though
Singapore's students do so brilliantly on these tests, when you
look at these same students 10 or 20 years later, few of them are
world-beaters any more.
Singapore has few truly top-ranked scientists, entrepreneurs,
inventors, business executives or academics.
American kids, by contrast, test much worse in the fourth and
eighth grades but seem to do better later in life and in the real
world. Why?
"We both have meritocracies," Shanmugaratnam said. "Yours is a
talent meritocracy, ours is an exam meritocracy. There are some
parts of the intellect that we are not able to test well-like
creativity, curiosity, a sense of adventure, ambition.
"Most of all, America has a culture of learning that challenges
conventional wisdom, even if it means challenging authority. These
are the areas where Singapore must learn from America."
Shanmugaratnam also pointed out that American universities are
unrivalled globally-and are getting better.
"You have created a public-private partnership in tertiary
education that is amazingly successful. The government provides
massive funding, and private and public colleges compete, raising
everyone's standards."
Shanmugaratnam highlighted in particular the role that American
foundations play.
"Someone in society has to be focused on the long term, on
maintaining excellence, on raising quality. You have this array of
foundations-in fact, a whole tradition of civic-minded
volunteerism-that fulfills this role.
"For example, you could not imagine American advances in biomedical
sciences without the Howard Hughes Foundation."
Singapore is now emphasising factors other than raw testing skills
when selecting its top students. But cultures are hard to
change.
A Singaporean friend recently brought his children back from
America and put them in his country's much-heralded schools. He
described the difference.
"In the American school, when my son would speak up, he was
applauded and encouraged. In Singapore, he's seen as pushy and
weird. The culture of making learning something to love and engage
in with gusto is totally absent.
"Here it is a chore. Work hard, memorize and test well." He took
his child out of the Singapore state school and put him into a
private, Western-style one.
Despite all the praise Shanmugaratnam showered on the States, he
said that the US educational system "as a whole has failed."
"Unless you are comfortably middle class or richer," he explained,
"you get an education that is truly second-rate by any standards.
Apart from issues of fairness, what this means is that you never
really access the talent of poor, bright kids.
"They don't go to good schools and, because of teaching methods
that focus on bringing everyone along, the bright ones are never
pushed. In Singapore we get the poor kid who is very bright and
very hungry, and that's crucial to our success.
"From where I sit, it's not a flat world," Shanmugaratnam
concluded.
"It's one of peaks and valleys. The good news for America is that
the peaks are getting higher. But the valleys are getting deeper,
and many of them are also in the United States."
Newsweek (Jan. 9, 2006 issue)
