Chinese Education Survey

As a school board member in our community I am very attuned to education news. I read an interesting article today at China Daily.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-03/25/content_6561947.htm

Essentially the survey found that 40% of Chinese respondents feel their educational system is not returning an appropriate return on the investment they are making in it. This is very interesting as the media in the US is frequently reporting that the US is falling behind countries like China and India in education. This article shows that comparisons of educational systems are very complex.

Another interesting note from the article - many respondents seem to be measuring the return on education based on their salary versus their salary expectations given their level of education. This highlights the stress I see in China as folks believe they should be earning more.

So, what's the point? First, the US educational system needs to keep improving, but not using the Chinese model as a guide. I continue to believe it is too focused on testing achievement on not focused enough on preparing students for their future. Second, the Chinese education system is still not producing management talent and their economy will continue to import expertise for a while at least. This leads me to believe OPSA continues to be in a great position to help our customers and the factories by providing a safety net layer of project management.