CIS in China – Education in a Command and Control Economy

The People’s Republic of China has been in the news quite a bit lately and as I was fortunate enough to travel there in October, as part of a CIS delegation, I thought I might share some thoughts on my travels.

The Conference of Independent Schools was part of an education delegation sponsored by the Chinese government and we were able to visit Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai to visit schools as well as seeing a number of tourist sites.

Officials from publicly funded school boards and Canadian government Ministries of Education made up the delegation of approximately one hundred educators and administrators. The delegation was funded by HANBAN, a Chinese NGO whose mission is to promote Chinese language, culture and history around the globe. This is a very interesting initiative and speaks volumes to the Chinese government’s apparent desire to broaden understanding of its country and culture.

The Sunday Toronto Star (Nov. 14, 2010) featured an article on Shanghai, the host city for the World Expo 2010 and Shanghai was one of the cities we visited, albeit briefly.  Shanghai is one of the key cities in China, with a population approaching 20 million.  It is a fascinating blend of old and new and a remarkable rate of growth over the past 17 years or so. In 1997, the Pudong district  was a barren swampland across from the old colonial district of the Bund. In a scant 17 years an enormous modern city neighbourhood has arisen as a result of the Chinese government’s decision to open the area as a Special Economic Zone.  The extensive subway system, consisting of clean, modern subway cars, with station messages in Chinese and English, was built entirely in just fifteen years. Of course the nature of the Chinese political system enabled this to take place at such a rapid pace. A reminder of the system of government was in evidence at the World Expo although recent images of police activity in Toronto during this summer’s G20 meetings remain in my mind, tempering this image of China.

Given the ‘command and control’ economy of China, I was very curious to have a look at the Chinese elementary and secondary education system, a topic of my next couple of posts.