Work Work Work! (Why China is top of the PISA results)

Today the British press is filled with news about PISA results. Questions are being raised about why the UK is so low in the tables with headlines like "Pisa tests: UK stagnates in international education league." 

Wales is also ranked the lowest in the UK.

ZhenZhou isn't actually included in the PISA table yet, but with Chinese cities like Shanghai and Hong-Kong topping the tables, it's clear that the education system here in China is very different to that in the UK.

The schools I'm teaching in are special English schools for kids when they're not in their normal schools. So basically, instead of playing or being with friends, their parents send them to UUFL (the English school I work for). 

It's funny that while I've come all the way here, so many parents are sending their children to learn English just so that they can get them out of China!! A lot of parents want their children to do these exams here in China, and if they pass them they get to go and study abroad! 

In UUFL, class sizes won't be more than 40 and the average number is 20, but UUFL is a private school. I've been told in normal schools you can have classes of 40 to 60 to 80 to even 100 children!!! 

I've been told by the other English teachers in UUFL that the children don't see us foreign English teachers as real teachers, so they behave differently to how they would if a Chinese teacher was here. 

With UUFL, the parents can sit in on the lesson if they want and watch their kids learn! It is kind of weird, and it puts the teacher under more pressure to keep control and to make sure the children have fun!

Basically, the children here work, work, work!!

This morning in my TESOL class, the teacher explained that it is not uncommon for a child that loses a game to either cry, tear up their work or storm out of the classroom.

There's so much pressure on these children to be the best. If they don't achieve the most, or aren’t the best, they think they're a disappointment to themselves and to their parents (the one child rule has a big impact on this.) The children feel as though they won't achieve great things. 

For this reason, it's important that we foreign English teachers teach them that failure is a normal part of life and that we shouldn't give up or cry if we don't succeed but try harder until we do succeed!