The OECD PISA Results are in and it is apparently no urban myth that the Chinese are excelling in education, and especially in math and sciences. They take the #1 (Shanghai) and #4 (Hong Kong) positions in the latest assessment. Korea has #2 and Finland (ever punching way above their size and weight) takes #3. Wow …
Singapore takes #5, which makes it 4 of the top 5 for Asian countries. Eat your lunch now, because Asia is going to eat it for you soon enough. They obviously are putting a huge emphasis on growing their skills and creativity through education.
I am thrilled to note that Canada comes in at 6th place. New Zealand is 7th and Japan and Australia take the next two places. This is looking similar in some ways to the Martin Prosperity Report, but with an emphasis on long term sustainability through improvement of the population. Thus, the USA (which came in at #2 in that report) and UK are nowhere to be seen in this report (#17 and #25 respectively.)
Sustainability … that seems to be a useful concept, yes? So why would such world powers be so lacking in this obvious area? Well, for my money it is the evil of rampant corporatism and elitism. The rich (both old and new money) really don’t give a shit about the 99% and thus they have given short shrift to the concept of “no child shall be left behind.”
Meanwhile, the more egalitarian societies have figured out that everyone should be able to go as far as they want in life, and thus some level of equalization of finances, health care, social systems, and so on is required if the society as a whole is to grow and improve.
Of course, in the end might is right and so it goes …
