Exceptional Ethnic Exams: Education and Economics

"Chinese pupils eclipse all other ethnic groups in English tests" declares The Independent, even including immigrants who didn't speak English as their first language, AND even narrowly beating out white British children.

The implication is that the new Revolution continues apace. The Chinese juggernaut thunders along, undercutting first British manufacturing, then services. Now, Chinese kids are even washing up on blighty's shores and outmaneuvering the locals on the battlefield of standardised assessment.

According to a U.S. Department of Labor report, of the 525 service sector jobs it tracks, 275 of them could be outsourced or off-shored today.

China only just completed its five-year probationary period as a member of the World Trade Organisation in 2006.

How, the reader asks, are Brits meant to compete in the face of this kind of threat?

Well, never mind the number of Chinese-origin pupils number only in the low thousands - this will surely rise.

And set aside the argument that the the Chinese education system creates rigid thinking that is near-useless in modern free-thinking economies - flexible schools of thoughts can also be dissected, analysed, and replicated.

My most reassuring thought is that exams in Britain do not accurately test English language ability. Sure, Chinese students, even here, could teach most Brits a thing or two about gerunds, stative verbs, and all the technical machinery of the English language.

But all but the brightest of my students have been sorely lacking in the ability to produce confident, natural spoken English, even after a decade or more of study.

According to the report, "the culture at home for families of Chinese and Indian origin families puts more emphasis on the importance of education."

The result is that students from these systems and family backgrounds become extraordinarily good at taking exams, but suffer when it comes to effectively using that information. I'm speaking from personal experience here. In 12 years of schooling, I never met an exam I couldn't pass. I'm even looking forward to the ACA exams I'll start in September. But when I had to convert all the learned facts and analyses into coherent arguments, during interviews for example, I suffered.

So next time you see 'evidence' for how China is taking over the world, try not to worry too much. Don't try to compete on China's terms. Work on improving your competitive areas - in teamwork, leadership, communication - and not so much on your academics.

Otherwise it'll be 再见 for the British economy.