Ni Hao! What Africa Can Learn from Smart Chinese Kids

So my latest adventures have brought me to China: the weird and wonderful home of the rising sun, the Tiger Mom, the Tiger Wife (hello Wendi Deng!) and Confucius. Highlights? Well, I’ve hardly had time to play but I did take an opportunity to marvel at the scale and ingenuity of the Great Wall, be awed by the grandeur of the Imperial Gardens and of course, stuff my face with Beijing’s finest food.



Like Ethiopia, eating in China is an exciting experience bar one recent incident where I indulged in one too many bowls of delicious mutton stew. After proudly patting myself on the back for my fine culinary tastes, I was casually informed that the meal I just had was in fact turtle soup. Operative word: TURTLE. Yes, of the amphibious reptile variety. Trauma! Zanele makes safe food plans: the universe chuckles.



Turtlegate aside, I have had some remarkable experiences out here. The most enriching being my chat in a beauty salon (yes, I know, très cliché) with a 16 year old girl named Echo. In exchange for letting her play with my hair (‘it’s very buuutiful Miss!’), Echo allowed me to pick her brain about life for a teenage girl in China. She’s smart, she’s fired up, she’s ‘Asia Rising’. My former Dean, Kishore Mahbubani is onto something here...



This got me thinking about the value of education in emerging economies. It’s a no-brainer, Chinese kids are super smart. Question is why? How? It's an emerging economy with developmental constraints after all. What can Africans learn from them? Well, with its demanding parents, boundlessly ambitious students, and test-obsessed culture, China's schooling is bound to be the most rigorous in the world.



That said, let's not forget that while China has no problem producing mid-level accountants, computer programmers and technocrats, it has a dire lack of entrepreneurs and innovators needed to run a 21st century global economy. It's ironic that just as the world is appreciating the strengths of China's education system, the Chinese are waking up to its weaknesses. These are two sides of the same coin: Chinese schools are very good at preparing their students for standardized tests. For that reason, they fail to prepare them for the ‘outside world’ and the knowledge economy. McKinsey apparently agrees with me:

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Public_Sector/Education/Chinas_looming_talent_shortage_1685

Nevertheless, there’s no denying that China’s education is miles ahead of other developing nations. It’s hardly comparable with statistics from my own country’s education system which is frankly quite shocking. For example, despite 5.4% of GDP being allocated to education, almost half of South African students repeat a year during Grades 10-12. The picture is no better on the rest of the continent: dropout rates are high, teacher training inputs low, bureaucracy is crippling and accountability is non-existent.



How can this pattern be reversed? Sadly, I think the answer is simply: it can’t. Certainly not through small-scale, reactive but well-intentioned reforms. Africa has a schooling crisis. Period. A tragic systemic failing that only political intervention asserting government authority over schools can really make a difference.



Now don’t get me wrong: African education systems have started producing excellent scholars and professionals. Equally, our societies have long produced successful entrepreneurs and business-oriented people who against all odds (including minimal or total lack of formal education) have made smashing successes of their lives. Therefore formal education based on rigorous, soul-sapping testing is not the answer for the continent. What is? Perhaps more business focused education models that incentivise high performance and productivity in schools? Idealistic? Maybe. Costly? For sure. But I still vote yes.