High cost to schoolchildren in hard work

LESSONS from Asia for Australia's education system include  the massive input by parents in making their children work hard

LESSONS from Asia for Australia's sliding education system include not only the classroom focus featured in a new report by the Grattan Institute yesterday, but also the massive input by parents in making their children work hard.

It is also worth noting that the extra academic attainment does not come without some cost to the children themselves.

Clive Chan is the founder of e-smart, a company that teaches 600 children at two after-school learning centres in Hong Kong. He says primary school children usually do two to three hours of homework a night, and high-school students three to four hours. That's often after private tutoring.

Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and China's largest city, Shanghai, are highlighted in the Grattan study as four of the five top-performing school systems in the world.

In Australia too, Asian parenting helps. For instance, at Melbourne High School, a selective state school that consistently achieves excellent exam results -- its motto is "Honour in Work" -- two-thirds of the students now come from east or south Asian families.

China Daily writer Chen Weihua said he was not surprised at the success of Shanghai in international tests: "Like many Asian students, after nine years of intensive training in a test-oriented school system, the 15-year-olds in Shanghai are professional test-takers."

Mr Chan, who has an MBA from the University of NSW, said yesterday: "Meritocracy overwhelms our whole society. People feel they have to push their children, especially in the early years. A lot of time is still spent on drills."

Hong Kong has adapted its system to introduce creativity widely perceived as the weak point in Asian education -- but it has been laid on top of more traditional requirements.

Mr Chan said the new subject Liberal Studies, for instance, "actually teaches children how to use terms like 'creative' and 'critical thinking' so they can answer model questions".

A personal tutor in maths and science comes to the family home to teach his 16-year-old son Jason, who is in Year 11, for five hours a week. Jason often goes to bed after midnight as a result of the homework pressure. "Children here don't have enough rest," Mr Chan said. "If there were tables on self-image and happiness, I'm sure we'd have a low score."

Zhang Ning, an expert on Chinese education at Adelaide University, said: "The social setting in China is so different. Children have to work hard for career advancement, for honour, for family and for status and, most importantly, for money.

"But in Australia, there are so many avenues for success."

She said the pressure was multiplied by the one-child policy.

"There has been a change in teaching styles in China, with more awareness of how children are taught in the West."