Top Performing Countries

Canada Overview Since the end of the Second World War, Canada has transformed itself from a rural economy to an urban, industrial economy, the tenth largest in the world. It comes in fifth in the Forbes survey of the countries that are home to the world’s largest companies. One of the largest exporters and importers on the globe, it is more reliant on exports of natural resources—forest products, metals, and oil and gas — or the energy derived from them than most advanced industrial powers. But it also has a vibrant manufacturing sector, with auto manufacturing a particularly important player. DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness 15 Rank 2014 INSEAD Global 12 Innovation Rank 2014 Population 34,834,841 English 58.8% Languages French 21.6% Other 19.6% British 28% French 23% Ethnic Makeup Other European 15% Native 2% Other 32% GDP (PPP) $1.518 trillion GDP Per Capita $43,100 Agriculture: 1.7% Origin of GDP Industry: 28.4% Services: 69.9% Unemployment 7.1% Youth Unemployment 14.3% Secondary School Completion 72.84% Adults with Tertiary Education 53% Source: CIA World Factbook (September 2014) World Bank Data (September 2014) and OECD Education at a Glance 2014 Though not a strong performer in international comparisons of student achievement earlier, Canada turned in one of the strongest records of student achievement in the world when PISA was first administered in 2000. These results were further distinguished by the lack of large disparities in student scores across socioeconomic, ethnic and racial lines. In the more recent iterations of PISA, Canada has remained a top-performer, with Ontario, one of the country’s most populous provinces, demonstrating particularly strong results. In the 2012 PISA assessment, Canada was ranked sixth in reading, tenth in math and eighth in science. These numbers are even stronger for some of the provinces; Alberta ranked third in science, Ontario ranked fifth in reading and Quebec ranked fifth in math. Canada has much in common with its larger neighbor to the south, but the performance of its students has recently significantly outpaced that of the U.S. Interestingly, the difference between Canada’s performance and that of the United States is not that it has fewer immigrants or because its education system is centrally directed. The proportion of immigrants in the population is higher than in the southern neighbor and its education system is even more decentralized. There is no federal level education ministry. Instead, each of the ten provincial and three territorial governments is responsible for developing curriculum and determining major education policies and initiatives. However, each provincial ministry of education recognizes the importance of maintaining high standards and best practices, and they use one another as benchmarks when formulating major policy decisions and initiatives. This collaboration is aided by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), which is comprised of each of the heads of the provincial ministries of education. Studies on Canada’s varied provincial education systems indicate that many of the provinces’ key policies are very similar. In 1999, the CMEC published the “Victoria Declaration,” a statement that laid out educational goals at the national level. In this statement, the Ministers emphasized that their goals for an educated citizenry focused not only on www.cieb.org/cieb Canada 1 Canada's  Education  System  at  a  Glance personal development, but on the development of Canada’s social and economic goals. The Victoria Declaration also outlined a set of practical goals, including increased collaboration between the provinces on curriculum initiatives and best practices, expanding access to higher education, promoting more policybased research, and enhancing the links between CMEC and the federal government. Among the policies adopted by most or all of the provinces are: adoption of a common curriculum for all the schools within each province; high selectivity in teacher education programs and a strong focus on the integration of immigrant children into the education system (Canada may have the highest rate of immigration of any country in the world). One particularly successful province, Ontario, educates 40% of Canada’s five million students, and has one of its most diverse populations. Prior to the elections of 2003, Ontario’s conservative government had adopted an aggressive education reform strategy based on centralized testing and teacher accountability in a political environment that deeply alienated the teachers and their unions. During the 2003 campaign, the Liberals, who prevailed, put forward an alternative approach which PISA 2012 Mean Scores by Country for Reading, Mathematics, and Science also insisted on high academic standards, but offered to engage the teachers in a joint effort to develop their capacity to meet the same challenges to which the previous government had been responding, in particular the challenges posed by the province’s lowest performing students. An environment characterized by bitter conflict turned into one of collaboration. The new reform agenda committed the teachers to an agenda they played a strong role in designing, rather than fighting an agenda they believed was being imposed on them. Between 2003 and 2010, Ontario’s Ministry of Education proposed and implemented a series of major reforms. These included establishment of the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, a one-hundred person team, separate from the Ministry, devoted exclusively to directing and supporting this work. The Secretariat works with schools to set high but achievable goals for improvement in these basic skills and to identify ways to improve achievement. Speciallydesignated teams at both the schools and district levels were funded to support the program, creating the capacity Canada 2 needed to carry it out. The result of these efforts was to raise the average proficiency rate on grade 3 provincial exams in reading, math and writing from an average of 55% in 2003 to 72% in 2014. The second major reform was the Student Success Strategy, which focused on identifying potential dropouts early and providing them with the additional help they needed to succeed, including one-on-one learning opportunities, development of a range of new high school majors to appeal to a larger number of students, and the addition of experiential learning to classroom learning. Government provided the resources the high schools needed to hire designated special teachers devoted to this program alone. This program, in combination with a national interprovincial program called the Red Seal Program, are credited with increasing high school graduation rates from 68% in 2003, when the new government came into office, to 82% in 2013. The new Red Seal Program offers industry-recognized certificates in 18 fields to high school students who complete specified programs of technical study and pass their examinations. The Ontario Ministry of Education now hopes to build on those achievements in the coming years. In the 2014 policy plan, the Ministry emphasized increasing the use of technology for learning in secondary schools and in teacher professional development, improving the integration of in-school special needs services with services provided by community partners, strengthening communications and family engagement initiatives, and expanding skills-based and entrepreneurial learning opportunities through the Specialist High Skills Major Program. Teacher and Principal Quality Teacher quality is a strength of Canadian education. Ensuring the quality of teachers begins in teacher education programs, which are highly selective and draw from the top high school students in each province. Teacher education programs are generally thought to be academically rigorous. Once in the field, Canadian teachers’ salaries vary widely across the provinces, but are, for the most part, quite high when compared to others with a similar level of education. They are almost always higher than Canada’s GDP per capita, and higher than the OECD average teacher salaries. Recruitment and Compensation Canada is consistently able to recruit high-quality students into teaching, with the majority of prospective teachers drawn from the top 30% of their college cohorts. The perception among Canadian students is that it is much easier to get into a teacher education program next door in the United States than in their own country. Teachers in Canada typically need at least a bachelor’s degree plus one year of teacher education before they can teach, although provinces may also impose additional certification requirements. Canadian teacher salaries are determined on the provincial level and therefore reflect each province’s economic situation and the funding available. The starting salary for lower secondary school teachers in 2012 was $37,145; for upper secondary school teachers, it was $37,294. However, this varies widely across the provinces, with teachers in the Northwest Territories being paid $62,403 in their first year. These salaries compare favorably with the average OECD starting salary for a lower secondary school teacher, which is $30,735. With 15 years’ experience, the average Canadian salary for lower secondary teachers is $58,495, as compared to the OECD average of $40,570. The top of the pay scale ranges from just over $50,000 to about $90,000, depending on the province. Although there is a slightly smaller difference between bottom of scale and top of scale salaries in Canada than in other OECD countries, Canadian teachers reach the top of the pay scale much more quickly than in most countries, typically only needing about 12-15 years of experience to earn the maximum salary. Canada 3 In Ontario, the focus is not only on recruiting strong teachers but on retaining them. In 2004, the Ministry of Education instituted the “Building Futures” program to ease the transition from teacher education to teaching through workshops available to teacher candidates in their final year of study at public teacher education institutions. The workshops are organized around topics including aboriginal education; assessment, evaluation and reporting; special education; teachers engaging and communicating with parents; and learning mathematics for teaching. Another new program called “Survive and Thrive” is an online community for teachers at all levels – including teacher candidates – to share information and experience, as well as to establish mentorship relationships with one another. Initial Education and Training Teacher training programs are housed in Canadian universities, although separate standards for teacher qualification exist across the provinces. There are only about 50 teacher education programs in Canada, so it is easy for provincial governments to regulate quality. Typically students must complete a bachelor’s of education degree or a bachelor’s degree with an additional education certification in order to teach at any level, and several provinces require further qualifications in teaching subjects for secondary school teachers. Following initial education, the majority of provinces require another form of assessment, either through an examination or a certification process. The requirements for induction periods also vary across the provinces, although most do have at least an informal orientation period. Ratio of Lower Secondary Education Teachers’ Salary to GDP per Capita 2012 Source: OECD 2014 Education At a Glance (Teacher Salary) and Index Mundi/CIA/Trading Economies (GDP). Career Ladders Canadian teachers’ careers follow trajectories quite similar to those in the majority of top-performing countries. Successful teachers may be promoted to department head and can take part in professional development and training to take on leadership roles in the school and the school system later in their careers. In Ontario, for example, in order to become a principal, a teacher must have at least five years of teaching experience, certification in three of four age divisions (these are classified as primary, junior, intermediate and senior), two Specialist qualifications or a master’s degree and have completed the Principal’s Qualification Program. Professional Development All Canadian provincial Ministries of Education support and require ongoing teacher training efforts though, like nearly everything else in the Canadian education system, this is decentralized and subject to different requirements depending on location. In Ontario, the Working Table on Teacher Development was established in 2005. Since its inception, the Working Table has instituted a number of new programs to provide quality and consistency in teacher professional development. These include the New Teacher Induction Program, which requires new teachers to undergo additional training in their first year of teaching, as well as to satisfactorily meet certain standards during that year. The group also developed a Performance Appraisal Program for experienced teachers. Professional development programs are extensive and varied; they range from programs intended to develop content knowledge to those centered on important issues such as early literacy or bullying prevention. Canada 4 Instructional Systems System Design Children can begin attending school in Canada at age four or five by entering a non-compulsory pre-school or kindergarten program. By age six or seven, all children must be enrolled in school. Children attend primary school until age 11-13, at which point they move on to lower secondary school where the range of taught subjects is expanded. Starting in lower secondary school, most schools offer two streams: academic and general, for students with different educational goals. There is a movement in some provinces to develop integrated teaching in lower secondary schools. Under this system, students would remain in the same classroom with the same teacher (as in elementary school) rather than have their subjects divided by period and teacher, but currently, lower secondary school is divided by class subject. After completing lower secondary school, (around age 15 or 16) students can elect to move on to upper secondary (senior high) school, or to end their schooling. Upper secondary school was, in the past, primarily for students who chose to pursue higher education, with students seeking vocational training educated separately. Now the majority of upper secondary schools are comprehensive and offer courses in both tracks, in a continuation of the lower secondary program. Students are not required to take any gateway tests in order to move on; they advance to the next grade based on completion of the previous grade. High school graduation is based on examination performance and/or course credits, though the specific graduation requirements vary across the provinces. In Ontario, for example, although there is a Secondary School Literacy Test that students must pass in order to graduate, they also have the option of taking and passing the equivalent Secondary School Literacy Course instead. Graduation rates for upper secondary school vary across the country; in Ontario, the rate of graduation is 81%, and the overall average is 79%. Curriculum Canada does not have a national curriculum; rather, the provincial governments are responsible for establishing the curriculum for their schools, and each province has its own, ministry-established common curriculum. However, the Ministers of Education from each province have joined together in the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), in order to establish best practices in a collaborative effort. In addition to traditional compulsory subjects such as language, math, science, social studies and art, all provinces include citizenship education in the curriculum at both the primary and secondary levels. Many provinces have chosen to also incorporate elective subjects such as business and financial education. Ontario has established curriculum frameworks, resources and achievement standards in the Arts, French, Health and Physical Education, Language, Mathematics, Native Languages, Science and Technology and Social Studies at the elementary level, and additionally for Business Studies, Canadian and World Studies, Classical and International Languages, Computer Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, Native Studies and Technological Education at the secondary level. The curriculum is revised cyclically in consultation with curriculum developers, parents, teachers and other interested parties; a full revision cycle takes about nine years, with different components of the curriculum updated every year. Assessment All provinces develop their own assessments. Most have province-wide examinations for certain year groups, during which the assessment measures numeracy and literacy, and core-subject tests to determine graduation eligibility in senior high school. In all provinces, parents also receive regular reports on their child’s progress. There are also several national assessments which are carried out periodically. One of the primary national assessments is the PanCanadian Assessment Programme (PCAP), piloted in 2007. PCAP replaced the School Achievement Indicators Programme (SAIP), which had been in place since 1993. PCAP assesses the reading, math and science skills of 13and 16-year-old students. The PCAP was formulated to be much like PISA; each year, one of the three core test subjects is the primary focus of the examination. In addition to the tests, PCAP also collects data on Canadian www.cieb.org/cieb Canada 5 learning contexts. Students, principals and teachers complete surveys, which ask about their learning environments and how much value they place on the core subjects. PCAP’s results are reported through the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), and are analyzed by province, gender and language spoken. They are used to inform broad policy decisions and as a benchmarking standard across provinces, but CMEC does not provide data on individual schools or school districts to the public. Some provinces, such as Ontario, have their own set of assessments that are used to provide data about student performance at the school and/or school board level. Additionally, in most provinces, teachers use authentic assessment in their classrooms. This includes daily student work, teacher-made tests and quizzes, writing assignments and group projects. Instruction Following a series of reforms in the 1960s and 1970s, the method of instruction in Canada changed from primarily rote learning to one focused on child-centered learning. Methods including open-plan schools, team teaching and the use of visual aids have been implemented with varying success across Canada in the last several decades. Specific instructional frameworks vary across provinces. In Ontario, the ministry provides sample activities and rubrics for instruction that match the curriculum by grade level and by subject, to enable teachers to incorporate activities and assessments in the instruction that are directly aligned with the curriculum goals. Gateways In primary and lower secondary school, test scores do not typically determine progression to the next phase of education. Graduation from upper secondary school, however, is often based on exam performance and course credits. In Ontario, students can proceed from first grade through twelfth grade without taking gateway exams. However, in order to graduate from high school, students must complete 18 compulsory credits in core subjects, 12 optional credits and 40 hours of community service as well as pass the Secondary School Literacy Test, or take and pass the equivalent Secondary School Literacy Course. Admission to universities in Canada is typically based on student performance in high school, and primarily on grades. Students who wish to continue on to university submit their transcripts to their school(s) of choice and are generally accepted on the basis of grades alone. Students are given preference at universities in their home province, but are allowed to apply to any university across the country. There is no major gateway exam required for admission, though the SAT is administered in the majority of provinces for students who want to attend university in the US. System and School Organization Education Finance Free education from the ages of six to eighteen is available to all Canadians, and more than 90% of Canadian students attend state-funded schools. Public schools derive more than 90% of their revenue from the government at the local and provincial level. Over the last 20 years, most provinces have taken over the funding of their schools, so that the local contribution is zero or close to it. The provincial government provides funding directly to schools. The amount of funding a school board receives is recalculated each year based on the number of regular students, special needs students and location. In addition to public schools, Canadian students can also choose to attend either charter or private schools, though this represents fewer than 10% of students. The majority of these schools receive some funding from the government, depending on how they are classified. Charter schools are expected to meet the same provincial standards as public schools, while private or independent schools must only meet broad general standards. In 2011, Canada spent 6.8% of its GDP on education, which was more than the Canada 6 OECD average of 6.1%. This meant, on average, that Canada spent $11,607 per student on upper secondary education; OECD countries averaged $9,506. School Management and Organization Each province has its own Ministry of Education, which is run by an elected Minister of Education. The Ministry sets standards, determines curricula and allots funding to the state schools in their province, as well as oversees the teacher certification process and the provision of school support services (transportation, health and food services and libraries). Provinces typically organize their school systems around locally elected school boards. Local school boards are elected bodies, and work in conjunction with the provincial government. School boards are responsible for all major hiring and personnel decisions, from the chief superintendent to the teachers. They also set annual budgets and may have some oversight on new programs and policies. While there is a Council of Ministers of Education (CMEC) in Canada, there is no federal Ministry of Education. CMEC is mainly a vehicle of the ministers of education from the provinces to exchange information with one another and to benchmark each others systems. The federal government does provide funding for post-secondary education, adult occupational training and for programs intended to extend educational equity to speakers of minority languages and to members of Canada’s indigenous groups. Accountability and Incentive Systems Many provinces have eliminated the aggressive accountability programs previously in place for teachers, and Ontario has eliminated performance pay. Instead, teachers are expected to be accountable to their peers and to be motivated by school culture, school leadership and a shared purpose, rather than by the promise of bonuses or the fear of termination. Similarly, in failing schools, the focus is on improving the performance of current staff, rather than seeking replacements. At the national level, a sample of Canadian students take tests in reading, math and science at the ages of 13 and 16 called the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP). PCAP’s results are used at the national level to determine progress across the provinces every three years. Ontario has established the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), which advises the Minister of Education on issues regarding school assessment and accountability. The EQAO designs and implements annual student assessments for students in grades 3, 6, 9 and 10. Results are aggregated at the school and school board levels. The EQAO publishes profiles of successful schools alongside analysis of the policies that have led to the schools’ success. Parent and Community Participation There has traditionally been a supportive culture for public education and educational pursuits in Canada. The Canadian government also grants immigration rights to people based on their perceived ability to fill certain professional roles in Canadian society, meaning that the population is consistently being augmented with highlyeducated people, who are likely to pass on strong educational values to their children. Perhaps as a result of these factors, studies show that Canadian children are more likely to read for pleasure than any other children in the world. Annual Expenditure by Upper Secondary Educational Institutions per Student for All Services (2011, in equivalent USD converted using PPPs for GDP, public institutions only) Source: OECD The Ministries of Education in several Canadian provinces actively encourage increased parent involvement in schools. In Ontario, the ministry supports Canada 7 Parent Involvement Committees (PICs) and small grants called Parent Reaching Out Grants (PROs), which are used to “identify barriers to parent engagement” and to find local solutions to engage parents in the schools. All provinces have Parent-Teacher Associations, and in some provinces, parents are also encouraged to participate on school councils or advisory boards. Education For All Student Support Systems Despite the fact that Canadian education is almost wholly administered at the provincial level, the federal government has assumed responsibility for funding and encouraging the education of Canada’s indigenous peoples, who have traditionally been underserved by the state education system. The federal government has also made it a stated goal to establish education in the official minority languages in each province and provide funding to support the development and maintenance of these programs. Canadian children, like their parents, have access to national healthcare and, for those students living in poverty, income subsidies. With concerns about health care and basic income removed, parents and students are more able to focus on academic performance and students are less likely to leave school at an early age to pursue full-time work. Since 2003, Ontario has focused on supporting struggling students in schools. As part of their goal to improve literacy and numeracy rates, the ministry has implemented a series of major reforms. These included establishment of the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, a one-hundred person team, separate from the Ministry, devoted exclusively to working closely with districts and schools to improve literacy and numeracy. The Secretariat works with schools to set high but achievable goals for improvement in these basic skills and to identify ways to improve achievement. Specially-designated teams at both the school and district levels were funded to support the program, creating the capacity needed to carry it out. The result of these efforts was to raise the average proficiency rate on grade 3 provincial exams in reading, math and writing from an average of 55% in 2003 to 72% in 2014. The second major reform was the Student Success Strategy, which focused on identifying potential dropouts early and providing them with the additional help they needed to succeed, including one-on-one learning opportunities, development of a range of new high school majors to appeal to a larger number of students, and the addition of experiential learning to classroom learning. PISA 2012: Variation in Mathematics Performance Government provided the resources the high schools Explained by Socioeconomic Background needed to hire designated special teachers whose role was to support this program in each school. The result was an increase in high school graduation rates from 68% in 2003, when the new government came into office, to 82% in 2013. According to a National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, completed in 2001 and reported in 2007, 4.9% of Canadian students have a reported disability; in some provinces, this number is as low as 2.5%. Of these students, on average, 60% are educated in mainstream classrooms. Therefore, Canada identifies students for additional special needs services; that being said, the scope of these services differs by province. For Source: OECD   Canada 8 example, Ontario considers a wide range of students “special needs,” from students with developmental or physical disabilities and/or learning disabilities to students who perform far beyond their grade level. As such, schools seek to reach accommodation with all of these students through modified educational programs and access to necessary resources. For students who cannot thrive in a mainstream school, there are special schools for students whose disabilities include deafness, blindness and extreme learning disabilities. The Ontario Ministry of Education allocates specific funds to school boards for special education programs and services, provides expert advice to school boards when considering special education policies, and has a tribunal in place to help mediate between school boards and parents if a conflict arises. The Ontario Ministry of Education also publishes yearly Guidelines for Policy Development and Implementation, in order to guide school boards and administrative staff to achieve equity and inclusive education in Ontario schools. Low-Performing Schools Provinces use two forms of funding to provide resources to low performing schools: categorical grants, which fund particular programs; and equalization funding, which tops up funding for struggling schools. Categorical grants can also be used for special programs in struggling schools, as well as for transportation and special education needs. In Ontario, the government has invested about $25 million Canadian Dollars per year in the Ontario Focused Intervention Partnership (OFIP), which began in the 2006-2007 school year. This money went directly to 1,100 low performing schools, while a further $7.6 million was set aside for before- and after-school tutoring programs. Funding to specific schools is determined based on their categorization in the OFIP system; OFIP 1 schools have less than 34% of students meeting the provincial standard for reading, OFIP 2 schools have 34-50% of students meeting this standard, and OFIP 3 schools have 51-74% of students meeting the standard, but have either declined or failed to show improvement over the past three years. School boards can use OFIP money for teacher professional development, resources and materials and literacy/numeracy coaches, among other things. The ministry has also developed a School Effectiveness Framework to assist school boards with improvement planning. It outlines a program of observation, analysis and reflection for school leaders, promotes collaboration with successful schools, and provides resources as administrators move forward with improvement plans. School-to-Work Transition Vocational education is offered at both the secondary and post-secondary levels in Canada. At the secondary level, courses are offered either alongside academic courses in a comprehensive school or, occasionally, in separate vocational schools, depending on the province. Ontario has just begun a comprehensive program in secondary schools called the “Specialist High Skills Majors,” which are programs of eight to ten classes in eighteen industry or trade fields, including aviation, energy, transportation, hospitality and tourism and health and wellness. As of the 2011-2012 school year, these majors are offered by every school board across the province. Upon graduation from secondary school with a focus in a high skills major, students receive both a high school diploma and industry certification. These programs have been very popular; the Ontario Ministry of Education credits them with raising the secondary school graduation rate from 68% in 2003-2004 to 82% in 2012-2013. The number of students participating in these programs has also increased every year. Graduates of secondary vocational programs may then enter the workforce, a post-secondary program to expand and enhance their skills, or an apprenticeship in their occupational area or trade. Although apprenticeship programs were initially conceived for adults, increasingly, students are choosing apprenticeships following vocational secondary school. The Canadian government promotes apprenticeships through the Apprenticeship Incentive Grant and Apprenticeship Completion Grant, both of which are small grants ($1000-$2000) available to registered apprentices. In order to encourage people in industry to take on apprentices, the government also offers a tax credit equal to 10% of the wages paid to apprentices. Vocational education and training is regulated by the Red Seal program, an interprovincial standards framework. Programs participating in the Red Seal program are recognized as having met industry’s standards of excellence; students who have completed formal education or apprenticeships in a skilled trade can earn a Red Seal endorsement Canada 9 after completing a national Red Seal examination in their field and their credentials are portable across Canada. The Red Seal provides standards for 52 occupations, and also maintains the Ellis Chart, a comparative guide to training programs across Canada. In addition to the Red Seal program, Canada also offers a number of other ways for adults to improve their skills and education. Improving lifelong learning opportunities has been a focal point of the goals of the Council of Education Ministers, Canada (CMEC) since the Victoria Declaration in 1999. The 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey indicated that nearly half of Canada’s adult population (defined as individuals aged 16 to 65 not in full-time education) were enrolled in some form of adult education. Adult education is available to Canadians in many forms: colleges often offer training programs, as do government departments; adult learning centers exist in many provinces; and a number of non-profits have emerged in communities, often focusing their resources on offering additional training for underserved populations such as immigrants, rural workers, the unemployed and people with low literacy and numeracy skills. Many employers also support the pursuit of advanced qualifications; in the same survey, 53% of adults involved in adult education reported that they were supported by their workplace. Ontario has recently signaled that it will prioritize improving its vocational education system. In August 2014, the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities announced that all 45 publicly assisted colleges and universities signed agreements to ensure that their programs are linked to the economic needs of local and global employers and that the programs are coordinated across the province. It also gives Ontario the capacity to continuously improve its offerings, by periodically surveying programs to ensure that the range of economic needs in the province are met. A draft framework proposes metrics in eight areas to assess universities’ strengths and progress, including student employment statistics, private sector partnerships, and student satisfaction. Canada 10 Estonia Overview Estonia emerged as a top performer on PISA 2012, ranking 11th in reading and math and 6th in science among all PISA participating countries and regions. Among EU countries, Estonia ranked 2nd in math and science and 4th in reading. This is a remarkable achievement for a country that only gained independence in 1992. Since that year, the Estonia economy has grown nearly tenfold, with a well-developed information technology sector central to that growth. Part of this growth strategy was the development of an education system to foster a high-tech, high-skill, high-wage economy. This impressive and steady rebuilding of the Estonian education system occurred in three main areas: the development of a new national curriculum adapted to the needs of a new economy; revamping teacher training to focus on innovative teacher practices and teacher mentorships; and upgrading the status of vocational education and training (VET). Notable to Estonia is their national strategy to develop an information society by 2015. As part of that strategy, the Tiger Leap project, started in 1998, put in place a computer science curriculum for all secondary school students. This has since expanded to all students in all grades, with an emphasis not just on programming but on problemsolving skills and logical thinking. DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness 29 Rank 2014 INSEAD Global 24 Innovation Rank 2014 Population 1,257,921 Estonian 68.5% Russian 29.6% Languages Ukranian 0.6% Other 1.3% Estonian 68.7% Russian 24.8% Ukranian 1.7% Ethnic Makeup Belarusian 1% Finn 0.6% Other 3.2% GDP (PPP) $29.94 billion GDP Per Capita $22,400 Agriculture: 3.9% Origin of GDP Industry: 30% Services: 66.2% Unemployment 10.90% Youth Unemployment 21.1% Secondary School Completion 73.84% Adults with Tertiary Education 37% Source: CIA World Factbook (September 2014) Estonia developed and adopted a new national World Bank Data (September 2014) curriculum for the 1997-98 school year. It focused and OECD Education at a Glance 2014 on traditional academic subjects as well as skills s uch as self-management, learning to learn, communications and entrepreneurship. It set national frameworks for each subject but, unlike the previous Soviet curriculum, local schools have significant autonomy in deciding their curriculum. Schools are also entrusted with designing and implementing their own plan to change and improve education to take into account the needs of the local area, school staff, parents and students, and the schools’ resources and capacity. Amendments to the school curriculum can be submitted to the school’s board of trustees, students’ board or teachers’ council. Estonia coupled this new curricula with a revamping of teacher education in the country in order to strengthen teachers’ capacity to focus on critical thinking skills for the new IT economy Estonia was building and serve a diverse set of students. Teacher education is now focused more on mentorships with master teachers. Estonia has also focused on upgrading its vocational education system that serves about 30 percent of its upper secondary school students. In 1999, the country created a national qualifications system, developed national standards for vocational education and established more than 40 regional vocational training centers across the country. Almost all large employers and more than half of small firms participate in the system, which offers training places to all students. Estonia 11 PISA 2012 Mean Scores by Country for Reading, Mathematics, and Science Estonia’s Education System at a Glance Estonia 12 Finland Overview When the first PISA results became public, and Finland topped the league tables, no one was more surprised than the Finns. Long in the shadow of the Swedes, the Finns had no idea that they might finish first. Some thought it might be a fluke. But they have been among the leaders ever since. A steady stream of researchers and educators have been trekking to Finland to see if they can divine the Finnish secrets of success. The Ministry has had to create a unit devoted solely to helping foreigners interested in learning about their system. Right after the Second World War, Finland was largely a land of woodcutters and agriculturalists. Finland’s education system and student achievement at that time were unremarkable. DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness 4 Rank 2014 INSEAD Global 4 Innovation Rank 2014 Population 5,268,799 Finnish 91.2% Languages Swedish 5.5% Other 3.3% Finn 93.4% Swede 5.6% Russian 0.5% Ethnic Makeup Estonian 0.3% Roma 0.1% Sami 0.1% GDP (PPP) $195.5 billion GDP Per Capita $35,900 Agriculture: 2.9% Origin of GDP Industry: 25.1% Services: 71.9% Unemployment 8.1% Youth Unemployment 17.7% Secondary School Completion 70.68% Adults with Tertiary Education 40% In the early 1990s, Finland was forced to completely re-think its economic strategy. An overheated economy combined with the collapse of the Soviet Union, a major trading partner, to produce a precipitous decline in GDP and an unemployment rate of 20%, higher than in the Great Depression. Following this cataclysm, Finland applied for entrance into the European Union and began to move away from its traditional Source: CIA World Factbook (September 2014) export strategies. The government decided to World Bank Data (September 2014) funnel resources into the development of the and OECD Education at a Glance 2014 telecommunications sector, hoping to reinvent Finland as a global telecommunications capital. Nokia took on a leadership role in developing this industry. By 2003, 22 of every 1000 Finnish workers were involved in the research and development sector, a figure almost three times higher than the OECD average, and more than four times higher than in Finland in 1991. The Finnish economy had undergone a major transformation. The education system was able to respond to the workforce needs created by the events of the early 90s because of a series of extensive reforms that had begun in 1972, which had changed the face of teaching and learning in Finland. These began with creation of a unified comprehensive education structure and national curriculum guidelines. Accompanying the restructuring of schools was a restructuring of teacher education, with responsibility for teacher training moving to Finland’s universities, where Finland’s other most valued professional had long been trained. Other measures were also aimed at improving the quality of the Finnish teaching force. Over time, mathematics, science and technology all took on greater importance in Finnish curricula, as did higher-order thinking skills like problem-solving, teamwork, creativity and interdisciplinary studies. These reforms and others, 13 described in more detail in other sections on Finland on this site, made Finland’s economic survival in the 1990s possible. Now, Finland is counted among the world’s high technology leaders, with a very modern economy centered on the telecommunications, consumer electronics, forest products and metals industries. Finland’s  Education  System  at  a  Glance When the Finns surprised themselves and everyone else when the first PISA scores were announced, and were asked how their students had managed to outperform not only the Swedes but everyone else, they said they had no idea. That is because there was no single point of inflection in the development of the Finnish system to which anyone could point, and say, “There, that was the policy initiative that did it. That is the secret.” The Finnish story is not unlike that of Singapore, in that eventual success was the result of a long, slow and rather steady process, not the result of a single development, policy, program or administration. Each step in the development of the modern Finnish education system built sensibly on those that went before. Most observers have come to believe that, if there is a key to the success of the Finnish system, it is the quality of their teachers and the trust that the Finnish people have vested in them. Some would argue that this, in some sense, makes the Finnish case irrelevant to the decisions to be made by other countries, because they lack the culture in which such a high value is placed on teachers and teaching. But, when one examines the specific policies that the Finns have adopted with respect to the recruitment, selection, training, supervision and support of teachers, and the way in which the intense focus on teacher quality is matched to the Finnish approach to accountability, curriculum, instruction and school management, then one begins to see that teacher quality in Finland is not the result of an unmatchable culture, but rather of a specific highly integrated system of policies and structures that other nations can emulate to produce a culture that is no less supportive of teachers and no less likely to result in superior student performance. One could certainly argue that such a system could not be implemented quickly in a country that now has a very different system, but it is important to keep in mind that it took decades for the Finns to build the system whose fruits they are now enjoying. PISA 2012 Mean Scores by Country for Reading, Mathematics, and Science Like any high-performing country that wants to remain at the top of the league tables, Finland is not resting on its laurels. Every four years, the government prepares a development plan for education and research, using that plan as a vehicle to make sure that the Finnish system is Finland 14 constantly adapting to the changing needs, including the economic needs, of the country. Though Finland’s population is very homogenous (more than 98% are descended from Finnish stock), that is changing and the Finns know that their education system will have to change to adapt to these changing demographics. Lower-skilled work is also being exported to other parts of Europe and a greater proportion of Finnish jobs will require ever-moresophisticated skills, another factor that is accounted for in Finnish education planning. The government’s stated priorities going forward include reducing class sizes, enhancing remediation and special needs teaching, improving teachers’ working conditions, establishing new opportunities for teachers to develop their professional skills, and overhauling adult education and training. In September 2011, the Ministry of Education and Culture also began a reform of the polytechnic system intended to upgrade the system significantly. By 2014, the Ministry intends to have legislation in place that will shift full responsibility for polytechnic funding to the government, a change from the current system in which polytechnics negotiate with the government each year to obtain core funding, and must make up the rest of their operating costs from other sources. With this control in place, the government will combine some of these institutions into “large and innovative high-standard competence environments,” present in every province, and programs of study will be focused on ensuring that graduates can begin working in their fields immediately upon graduation. Teacher and Principal Quality High quality teachers are the hallmark of Finland’s education system. Teaching is Finland’s “most respected” profession, and primary school teaching is the most sought-after career. As is the case with other top-performing countries, observers often dismiss the Finnish example because they see the status of teachers as a cultural characteristic that cannot be altered by policy and therefore as not replicable. But, as in other cases among the top performers, the status of teachers on closer examination appears to be in large measure the result of the implementation of specific policies and practices, detailed elsewhere on this web site, that are quite replicable. While this can also be said of other countries, including a number of East and Southeast Asian countries, there is a Finnish model that is quite different from the various Asian models. Why is a teaching career the number one choice of Finland’s best and brightest students? Pay is not the answer. Teacher pay in Finland is reasonably competitive but no more attractive than in many other European countries. In fact, the range of salaries among professionals in Finland is very small, compared to most other advanced industrial countries, which means that differences in compensation in Finland generally have less of an influence on career choice than in other countries. The answer certainly has something to do with the age-old respect for teachers in Finland, but much more to do with the selection process, the work itself and the working conditions. Because Finland has very high standards that must be met to enter teacher preparation programs, getting in confers prestige on the successful applicant. The fact that Finland has moved teacher education into the universities also confers prestige on young people who go into teaching, because they are getting professional training in the same institutions providing training to the highest prestige professions. Because Finland has developed a deeply thoughtful curriculum and then provided teachers ever more autonomy with respect to how they approach that curriculum, they have both a curriculum worth teaching to and the kind of autonomy in how they approach it that is characteristic only of the high status professions. Because Finland is at the frontiers of curriculum design to support creativity and innovation, teachers have a job that has many of the attractions of the professions that involve research, development and design. They are pushing their intellectual and creative boundaries. Because Finland is understandably satisfied with the job its teachers are doing, it is willing to trust them and their professional judgments to a degree that is rare among the nations of the world (a sign of which is the fact that there are no tests given to all Finnish students at any level of the system that would allow supervisors to make judgments about the comparative worth of individual teachers or school faculties.) This high level of trust, the intellectual challenges of a curriculum that aims high and involves a regimen of constant invention, the satisfaction of knowing that you have been admitted to a profession that is very hard to get into, the knowledge that you will be working with others who have the same attainments and the professional autonomy usually associated only with the highest status professions — all this makes for a very Finland 15 attractive job. It should be no surprise that Finland has a very high retention rate for teachers, with about 90% of trained teachers remaining in the profession for the duration of their careers. Recruitment and Compensation Ratio of Lower Secondary Education Teachers’ Salary to GDP per Capita (2012) Finnish teacher education programs are extremely selective, admitting only one out of every ten students who apply. The result is that Finland recruits from the top quartile of the cohort. Applicants are assessed based on their upper secondary school record, their extracurricular activities, and their score on the Matriculation Exam (taken at the end of upper secondary school). Once an applicant makes it beyond this first screening round, they are then observed in a teaching-like activity and interviewed; only candidates with a clear aptitude for teaching in addition to strong academic performance are admitted. Teachers’ compensation in Finland is a little higher than the European averages but unremarkable. Source: OECD Teacher salaries are competitive compared to other professions in Finland, but are fairly average compared to other European countries. Lower secondary school teachers with the minimum amount of required education are paid $34,720 in their first year; at the top of the pay scale, they can expect $45,157 a year. The OECD average for a beginning lower secondary teacher is $30,735; at the top of the scale, the average is $48,938. These salaries are somewhat lower than other professional salaries in Finland. Initial Education and Training In the 1970s, teacher education was moved from seminarium, or teachers’ colleges, into universities. Since then, further reforms have required all teachers to hold a master’s degree. Only 11 universities have teacher education programs (there are also five vocational teacher training colleges), so quality control and consistent standards are easy to achieve. Primary school teachers are required to major in education, with a minor in two primary school curriculum subject areas. Secondary school teachers are required to major in the subject they will teach, and to complete a fifth year of education designed to assure that they have mastered their craft, either alongside their major fieldwork or after they have completed four years of subject coursework. At the end of the five-year program, they earn a master’s degree. Teacher education is heavily research-based, with a strong emphasis on pedagogical content knowledge. Students must also spend a full year teaching in a school associated with their universities before graduation. These university-affiliated schools are model schools, where prospective teachers and researchers develop and model new practices and complete research on teaching and learning. Teacher education programs in Finland are monitored by the Higher Education Evaluation Council. Career Ladders Because the Finnish system places so much emphasis on school and teacher autonomy, there are not clearly defined career ladders. Teachers have control over their classrooms, lesson plans, and hours outside of teaching, so moving up the ladder does not necessarily affect their job autonomy or allow them to make broad changes within the school. Successful teachers may become principals, who are appointed by the local municipal authority. Principals do have financial responsibilities for the school budget, but they do not have a great deal of authority over the teachers – there is no tradition of principals observing teachers in order to evaluate them. In smaller schools, often principals have their own teaching load in addition to their other duties. Finland 16 Professional Development Finnish schools are funded at the municipal level, so professional development requirements differ by municipality. The national government requires each municipality to fund at least three days of mandatory professional development each year, but beyond that, time spent on professional development varies widely. Similarly, the government does not regulate what types of professional development teachers engage in. Research indicates that the average Finnish teacher spends seven days a year on professional development, with some municipalities arranging large, multi-school training events and others leaving it up to schools to develop in-service programs. This system seems likely to change, however; in 2010, the Ministry of Education allocated $27 million to support the development of a national program to provide more uniform access to professional development opportunities and hopes to double the funding by 2016. Instructional Systems System Design In the 1970s, Finland moved to comprehensive schools for all students. With this change, schools were organized to insure that all students have a common education experience, with highly qualified teachers and supports for struggling students. Today in Finland, students start school with one year of pre-primary education, followed by nine years at a comprehensive school. Following the completion of comprehensive school, students choose between academic or vocational upper secondary schools, or they may choose to leave school altogether. This option is unpopular; more than 95% of students continue on to upper secondary education, with about half of those choosing an academic track (53%), and half a vocational track (47%) – resulting in a graduation rate of 95%. In the final two years prior to university in the academic track, there are no set classes nor are there grades. Instead, students design an individual education plan and are expected to complete the plan at their own pace. For students who are interested in specializing, specialized upper secondary schools exist. These schools tend to focus on certain subjects, such as the sciences, or arts, music or sports. Some general upper secondary schools offer specialized tracks. Others offer the International Baccalaureate diploma program. Curriculum Finland has a national core curriculum, which includes the identification of the core subjects, curriculum frameworks and a clear definition of how much time each topic should be allocated. It emphasizes languages – students must learn Swedish and Finnish (both are national languages of Finland) as well as a foreign language. The curriculum’s other subject areas are mathematics and natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, religion or ethics, physical and health education and arts and practical subjects. Students may also take other, elective subjects at the upper secondary school level. While the curriculum guidelines are fairly sparse by the standards of many countries – just 10 pages are devoted to math – the national curriculum serves as a guide, rather than an explicit lesson plan. The curriculum outlines how teachers should focus on developing their students’ creativity, management and innovation skills; with teachers grasping these goals and selecting their own teaching materials and lesson plans, they have been successful in achieving the government’s goals. Assessment Teachers are encouraged to assess their students regularly, and guidelines for assessment are provided in the national core curriculum. Currently, there is also a push for student self-assessment, so that students may understand their progress and help to design their own learning activities. The only external testing in comprehensive schools is for monitoring (rather than accountability) purposes and is done on a sample basis in grades 6 and 9. Finland also participates in international assessments like PISA. At the end of upper secondary school, all students take the National Matriculation Exam to determine whether they are eligible to graduate. This examination measures a student’s competency in four areas. Students are required to take Finland 17 an examination in the area of their mother tongue language, but can choose the three other subjects from the following group of four: the second national language, a foreign language, mathematics, or general studies, which includes sciences and the humanities. For languages and mathematics, there are two levels of the test, basic and advanced. Students can take either level in any of their tests, but are required to take at least one advanced level among the four tests. The national language tests include a textual skills section and an essay. The foreign language test includes writing as well as listening and reading comprehension. The mathematics test has ten math problems, and the general studies tests are interdisciplinary, requiring students to answer six to eight questions. The results of this test also impact their placement in institutes of higher education. Students who choose vocational education in place of upper secondary school do not take this exam, but are eligible for university at the end of initial vocational training. Instruction Finnish classrooms emphasize the importance of learning through doing, and place particular emphasis on group work, creativity and problem-solving skills. From primary school onward, students are expected to work collaboratively on interdisciplinary projects. In many cases, students are expected to contribute to the design of these projects as well. In upper secondary school, students are expected to contribute to the design of their course of study. Finnish students receive fewer hours of instruction than students in any other OECD country, being taught for only 600 hours a year as compared to 1,080 hours in the OECD countries with the most hours of instruction. Teachers spend their other professional hours carefully crafting their lesson plans and coming up with innovative ways to engage their students. Teachers also pride themselves on personalizing lessons to fit their classroom and giving students individual attention. In the early years of school, Finnish students often stay together in a class with the same teacher for several years. That way, the teacher can follow their development over several grade levels, and they are able to learn in what many consider to be a family-like environment. Gateways Finnish schools are comprehensive and untracked until upper secondary school, at which point students may choose to attend either an academic or vocational school. This has provided a great deal of educational equity for students from all socioeconomic backgrounds, aided immensely by a strong teaching force. At the end of compulsory education (lower secondary school), Finnish students must decide whether they want to continue in an academic track possibly leading to university, or to pursue vocational education. However, there is no formal test to determine their path. The only formal, national test is the university matriculation exam: a set of four open-ended exams that are based on problem-solving skills rather than subject mastery. Although most students who go on to university take this exam, it is not required for graduation from upper secondary school or even for university admissions – some universities admit students based on other standards. All students have the legislated right to be allowed to proceed to the next level of education provided they have completed the previous level. System and School Organization Education Finance Education in Finland is free to all beginning at the voluntary pre-primary level and continuing through upper secondary school, although students may accrue fees for extracurricular morning and afternoon activities. Funding responsibilities are divided between the federal and municipal governments with the federal government assuming about 57% of the financial burden of schools and municipal authorities assuming the remaining 43%. There are very few private schools in Finland; those that exist are granted the same government funds as public schools, and are required to use the same admissions standards and provide the same services as public schools. The majority of the Finland 18 private schools in Finland are religious. The amount of federal money given to each municipality is determined by the number of students and an annually calculated unit cost per student. In 2011, Finland spent $12,545 per student in lower secondary school, as compared to the OECD average of $9,377. Total spending on education represented 6.5% of Finland’s GDP in 2011, compared to 5.9% of the GDP in 2008. The average across OECD countries was also 6.1% in 2011, up only slightly from 5.9% in 2008. Therefore, spending on education in Finland increased more rapidly than the OECD average during the Great Recession. School Management and Organization Annual Expenditure by Educational Institutions per Student for All Services The Ministry of Education and Culture oversees all publicly funded education, including the development of the national core curriculum through The Finnish National Board of Education and the accreditation of teacher training programs. Below the national level, Regional State Administrative Agencies and Centres for Economic Development oversee education. At the local level, the authority comes from the Regional State Administrative Agencies and the Centres for Economic Development. The local government is responsible for (2011, in equivalent USD converted using PPPs for providing basic education (grades 1-9) in GDP, by level of education for public institutions 3,100 schools, 45% of which teach fewer than 100 only) Source: OECD students. However, larger schools exist, with the largest comprehensive schools enrolling more than 900 students. For upper secondary education, the Ministry of Education and Culture provides licenses to local authorities, municipal authorities and registered associations and foundations to establish schools. Schools are managed by the teachers and staff. The local municipal authority in any given region appoints principals for six- or seven-year terms, but apart from this appointment, they largely leave the running of the school to the principal and his or her teachers. Principals are responsible for managing the school staff, ensuring the well-being and success of the students, and managing the school budget, although they do this generally in collaboration with the teachers. Parent and Community Participation The education of Finnish children is widely considered to be a collective responsibility. In the 1960s and 70s, Finland’s various political parties reached the consensus that all students should be educated together in a common school system, a departure from what up to that point had been a parallel system of vocational schools and academic schools. From that point on, there has been a strong link between Finnish schools and the communities that they serve. Parents are expected to take an active interest in their child’s performance, and teachers are held accountable to community standards and values. Parents are expected to be involved in their children’s education; their level of participation can range from transporting their children to school (Finland has no school bussing system) to volunteering at school events to sitting on the school board (each school’s board requires the participation of five parents). However, unlike in many of the other top-performing countries, students are expected to develop a strong degree of independence at an early age, and to take responsibility for their own learning. While parents are expected to be involved in their children’s education, they are not expected to be in charge of it. From a young age, children are expected to get themselves to and from school, and at the upper secondary level, they have a great deal of freedom in determining the content of their programs. Finland 19 Accountability and Incentive Systems Finland used to have a central education inspectorate in charge of evaluating school performance, but this has been replaced by a National Evaluation Council. This council, however, differs from an education inspectorate in that it serves to evaluate national policies rather than individual school performance. Schools are only formally evaluated periodically, with an exam administered to a sample of students in grades 6 and 9. Teachers are expected to use professional judgment and discretion, take collective responsibility for the education of their students and be accountable to their peers. Education For All Student Support Systems PISA 2012: Variation in Mathematics Performance Explained by Socioeconomic Background Finnish schools not only provide education, they provide many other important resources and services for their students, including a daily hot meal, psychological counseling and health and dental services. Finland is a fairly homogenous society; only a small minority of students are immigrants or are the children of immigrants. Nevertheless, the Finnish Ministry of Education is committed to providing equitable education, functional bilingualism and multiculturalism in schools. All children between 7 and 17 for whom Finnish is a native language are entitled to instruction in either Finnish or Swedish. Once they Source: OECD have begun comprehensive schooling, students may be educated in small, remedial teaching groups until they are ready to join mainstream classes. By law, students are allowed to complete their education in their native tongue, although they will have to find a school to provide this education for them. Currently, there are schools in Finland that instruct students in Arabic, Somali, Russian, Vietnamese and Estonian as either the sole language of instruction or as part of a bilingual school. Religious instruction in Finnish schools is based on the religious majority in a given locality; if a student elects not to take part in these lessons they may receive instruction in their religion of choice (provided there are a minimum of three students making this request), or fill the time with other supervised academic activities. Finally, a student’s linguistic background is taken into account when they are assessed in all core subjects. Finland invests much time and effort to insure that all students have the supports they need to succeed in school. This is quite clear in the instructional supports provided to large numbers of school children by special needs teachers found in schools across the country. In 2010, 23.3% of comprehensive school students in Finland received extra instruction from a Special Needs Education Teacher in school in the subjects in which the student needed help. Of this group, 12% received aid for a speech disorder; 40.5% received help in reading or writing; 23.7% for learning difficulties in mathematics; 9% for learning difficulties in foreign languages; 5.5% for adjustment difficulties or emotional disorders; and 8.9% for other learning difficulties. Those students classified as having more intensive learning difficulties, including severely delayed development, severe handicaps, autism, dysphasia, and visual or hearing impairment (1.2% of the school population in 2010) were educated in a special education school. Special education teachers, are important in the process of diagnosis and intervention, but it is not up to them alone to identify students. Each school has a group of staff that meets twice a month in order to assess the success of individual classrooms and potential concerns within classrooms. This group, which is comprised of the principal, the Finland 20 school nurse, the special education teacher, the school psychologist, a social worker and the classrooms’ teachers, determines whether problems exist, as well as how to rectify them. If students are considered to need help beyond what the school can provide, the school helps the family find professional intervention. Low-Performing Schools Prior to the 1970s, Finland’s education system was characterized by few high-performing and many low-performing schools. Education was inequitable, and the achievement gap ran across socioeconomic lines. When Finland began its educational reforms, this was one of the central problems it set out to address. By establishing a comprehensive school for grades 1-9 with rigorous standards, improving teacher quality and making school funding based solely on student numbers, Finland has been able to almost completely eliminate what was once a huge disparity. Now, there is little disparity in performance among Finnish schools. Finland had a 7.7% variance in reading performance between schools on the 2009 PISA; this can be compared to an OECD average of 33% in 2006. The country with the second-lowest rate of variance, Canada, still had a rate more than double that of Finland. Within schools, Finland’s rate of variance jumps to 80.7%, although the programs outlined above are making great strides in addressing this disparity. Finland has also been successful in uncoupling socioeconomic status from academic success or failure: there is only about a 6.8% variance based on students’ socioeconomic backgrounds, and a 23.2% variance based on a school’s socioeconomic background. Finland’s challenge seems to be addressing disparity within, rather than among, schools, and the overall disparity cannot be accounted for by socioeconomic factors. School-to-Work Transition Since the 1970s, Finland’s upper secondary vocational schools have been modernized and expanded; they are now such a popular option in Finland that 47% of graduates from comprehensive school enroll in them. The schools have added new programs that align with Finland’s economic and labor market needs. Upper secondary vocational programs typically last for three years and are full-time programs of study. Each of the programs requires six months of on-the-job learning in addition to coursework. About 75% of the coursework is vocational, in a student’s field of choice, and the remaining 25% of coursework is in the core curriculum subjects, which are common to all upper secondary pathways. Students must also complete student counseling and a final project, which can take many forms, including a paper, a set of work assignments, a product or a project. Students are often assessed by performing skills and tasks for an evaluator, and are expected to leave the program with extensive basic skills in their field as well as specialized competence in one area of the field. Upon completion of an upper secondary vocational program, students have the option of going on to one of Finland’s polytechnic colleges, allowing them to enter the workforce as highly-skilled employees. Polytechnic colleges require three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half-years of student training and education, and students may also go on to study for a polytechnic master’s degree after completing college-level training and working in the field for a minimum of three years. The government is currently working on a plan to revamp the funding structure for polytechnics, bringing them under government jurisdiction, raising the educational standards and linking them more closely to the needs of the economy. As in comprehensive schools and academic upper secondary schools, vocational education programs are guided by the Finnish National Board of Education, but there is a great deal of autonomy at the school or institute level. Institutes may be established by local authorities or municipalities, or alternately by a state company or registered association. Institutions are responsible for matching their graduate output with local labor market needs and for planning their curricula based on the national curriculum. In Finland, the most popular vocational qualifications are 21 Technology and Transport, Business and Administration and Health and Social Services. Roughly 72% of all vocational students choose to study in one of these fields. The other offered fields are Tourism; Catering and Home Economics; Culture; Natural Resources; and Physical Education. For adults who want to further their education or increase their skill levels, programs and classes are available, whether the ultimate goal is learning to read or earning a master’s degree. Adults who did not complete upper secondary school may take courses in order to earn a general education certificate or vocational qualification; they can strengthen their education in certain subject areas, or they may take non-degree or diploma courses. Education for adults is divided into three categories: self-motivated, self-training and labor market training. Self-motivated learning falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, while the other two categories come under the purview of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. The Finnish National Board of Education is in the process of developing a national qualifications framework for Finland, so that vocational and adult education can be measured against a common standard. The Ministry of Education hopes that by 2012, 60% of the working age population in Finland will be participating in adult education each year. Currently, the government is focused on expanding opportunities for people without prior vocational training, people whose vocational training or skill set is outdated, entrepreneurs, people who work for small- or medium-sized businesses, people over 55 and immigrants. Finland 22 Hong Kong Overview Following the first Opium War, in which the Ching Dynasty tried and failed to stop the British from trading with the Chinese in opium, the Chinese ceded a small group of fishing villages on the South China coast to Britain. In 1860, the Kowloon Peninsula was added. The New Territories, which included the area north of Kowloon all the way to the Shenzhen River, along with many other islands, were again added, and a 99-year lease signed in 1898. The whole of this British colony was known as Hong Kong. By the time the lease ran out, Hong Kong, with its magnificent harbor and unique history, had become one of the world’s great trading and financial centers, a cultural child of British and Chinese parents. But this history had only been layered onto a millennium or more of Chinese history in which the southern provinces of China had been a hotbed of trade (even when the rulers of China had closed the country DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS to trade) and the home base of the overseas Chinese. The World Economic Forum Global 7 In the 1970s and 80s, when the Asian countries came to Competitiveness appreciate the possibilities for economic growth made Rank 2014 possible by foreign direct investment in countries offering INSEAD Global 10 low-cost labor to the world’s manufacturers, Hong Kong Innovation Rank 2014 quickly became an aggressive and able player in the Population 7,112,688 game. Unlike many other players, Hong Kong, already one Cantonese 89/5% of the most sophisticated cities in the world and among the English 3.5% top ten in GDP per capita, had a very strong financial Mandarin 1.4% community and was home to a number of the world’s most Languages Other Chinese Dialects able trading companies. Unhampered by the anti-capitalist 4% ideology of Mao’s mainland China, Hong Kong, by then Other 1.6% home to more than 7 million people, established factories throughout its domain to provide cheap manufactured goods Chinese 93.6% to be sold in the global markets. Filipino 1.9% Ethnic Makeup Indonesian 1.9% But the price of Hong Kong’s labor began to rise as Other 2.6% demands for its products rose. Fortunately, when Deng Xiao GDP (PPP) $381.3 billion Ping succeeded Mao, he launched the new China by GDP Per Capita $52,700 declaring a special district in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong in Agriculture: 0% the Pearl River Delta, a district that was for the first time Origin of GDP Industry: 6.9% freed from the prior constraints to compete with the West on Services: 93% its own terms. Thus was launched the creation of mainland Unemployment 3.1% China as the world’s factory, but, unlike Hong Kong, China did not have sophisticated, Western style financial systems Youth Unemployment 9.1% with the usual legal infrastructure, nor did it have the kind of t ading infrastructure that Hong Kong had developed over Source: CIA World Factbook (September 2014) many years. Nor did it have experienced managers of World Bank Data (September 2014) commercial enterprises. Hong Kong had all these things. To and OECD Education at a Glance 2014 Westerners with capital to invest, China looked like a great opportunity cloaked in mystery. But mainland China was no mystery to the business people of Hong Kong, and so, Hong Kong 23 over time, Westerners with money to invest asked the great trading firms of Hong Kong to make the necessary arrangements to manufacture what was needed in mainland China rather than Hong Kong, because labor was much cheaper in the provinces of the Pearl River Delta, a geographic area the size of Europe, destined to become one of the great centers of Chinese industrial development. In the minds of some, Hong Kong became the brains of the vast Pearl River Delta industrial complex and its principal connection to the larger world. Some 80 million people on the mainland in the Pearl River Delta work for Hong Kong investors. PISA 2012 Mean Scores by Country for Reading, Mathematics, and Science Because Hong Kong developed in this way, marrying Hong Kong’s unique capacities in trade and finance to the Pearl River Delta’s surging eagerness to provide manufacturing facilities to the world, Hong Kong itself early in this process ceased being interested in selling its own low-cost labor and became intensely interested in providing very highvalue added services to the world and to the mainland. Indeed, Hong Kong itself began to invest vast sums in mainland enterprises and to directly manage those businesses. All these developments greatly affected the Hong Kong government’s view of its education requirements. Whereas early on, the Hong Kong government viewed a large proportion of its own population as available for low-cost labor to global enterprises, within a very short time, it realized that that role had been largely ceded to the nearby mainland provinces and Hong Kong itself would have to educate a very large fraction of its population to global standards, because it had priced itself out of the low-cost labor market. When the long-term lease to Britain ended, Hong Kong, became a Special Administrative Region of China. It set about to figure out what it might mean to marry an intensely capitalist community to its Communist neighbor. The process took place under a policy captured in the slogan, “One County, Two Systems.” Hong Kong was to be an integral part of China, but would be allowed to maintain most of the systems it had previously developed more or less intact. This applied to its education system, as well as many others. Hong Kong became part of the PISA system before any province of mainland China and its results are still reported separately. On this website, Hong Kong and Shanghai are treated as two separate jurisdictions. That is largely because Hong Kong and Shanghai, both top performers, are very different education systems. Hong Kong emerged as a world educational leader on recent international assessments – a feat that is all the more impressive considering that Hong Kong has essentially rebuilt its education system since 1997, the year Hong Kong was returned to China after a century and a half of British rule. Hong Kong outperformed almost every other nation in the 2009 PISA assessment, bested only by neighbors Shanghai and Korea and the perennially top-performing Finland. Hong Kong’s students ranked fourth in reading and third in both math and science. Hong Kong 24 Hong Kong’s Education System at a Glance Hong Kong’s Education Bureau (EDB) does not report to the Chinese Ministry of Education but rather to the Hong Kong government. Hong Kong schools are a hybrid result of both its British and Chinese heritages. Until the 1960s, schooling in Hong Kong was a very elite affair. There was only one university, which admitted only 100 to 200 students a year. Access to both secondary school and university was determined entirely by examination. Education planning was based on projected workforce requirements, which is why so few slots were available in higher education. Following the 60s, there was an explosion of schools as aspirations for education soared, and a great debate ensued as to whether to offer three years of free schooling after primary education. Nine-year compulsory education came in 1978. The Secondary School Entrance Exams were abolished, but, despite the policy change, the best students were still admitted to the best schools. And the curriculum continued to be based on drill. Secondary education was nearly universal by the end of the 80s. The system for academic education was complemented by development of a rather sophisticated system for vocational education, with separate programs for apprentices, craftsmen and technicians. The expansion of higher education followed through the 80s. The most significant reform of education in Hong Kong since then started in 1999. Employers were demanding new employees who would be prepared for an increasingly complex workplace. The schools, not so long ago dealing largely with a small elite, did not know how to cope with a mass education system set to elite standards. A curriculum focused on memorization and a didactic approach to teaching were both inadequate to the challenge. As blue collar work moved to the mainland, the education system was not yet set up to provide the kind of education to virtually all Hong Kong students that they would need in an economy based on high-value-added services. The Hong Kong government launched an unprecedented campaign to involve very large numbers of their citizens and education professionals in a public conversation about the goals of the education system. Preparation for these conversations was extensive and included briefings for the press at every level from editors to working reporters. The Education Committee also carefully studied education in many other countries. The result was a new design for education in Hong Kong. Once the design was clear, the government organized for four years before implementing the reforms. The exams following primary school were abolished, making it possible to shift from a regimen of rote learning designed to enable students to pass exams to curriculum and teaching designed to encourage real learning and active engagement of the students. The planners embraced a constructivist view of the learning process, a focus on education for understanding rather than the accumulation of facts or the performance of procedures, the creation of learning experiences for students that would enable them to acquire and demonstrate understanding by applying what they were learning, and the use of real-life situations with actual effects as part of the instructional process. There was a new emphasis on the integration of knowledge as well as the development of analytical skills. Hong Kong 25 As part of these reforms, the structure of the system is changing from the British 5 years+2 years+3 years system to a 3+3+4 system. A new senior secondary curriculum was implemented in 2009, to be culminated by a new examination to be administered beginning in 2012. These changes are being matched by changes in the higher education system, including more emphasis on experiential education and expansion of overseas exchanges. Most schools were and continue to be sponsored by various private bodies, but are heavily subsidized by government. A Code of Aid governs school operations, but, overall, the tradition in Hong Kong, unlike mainland China, is for minimum government intervention in the schools, though this stance has been changing in recent years. It is this tradition that led the government to promote the profound changes just described not by fiat but by involving so many people at so many levels in deciding what was to be done and by promoting implementation through extended discussion rather then regulation. The benefit is a deep and widespread commitment to the new agenda, but the challenge that comes with this approach is significant disparity among schools in quality that would not be tolerated in Singapore or Shanghai. While overall performance as measured by PISA is high, the performance of some schools is poor. This appears to be a price that the people of Hong Kong are willing to pay. Teacher and Principal Quality Standards for entering the teaching profession in Hong Kong are slowly becoming more rigorous. Prior to the mid1990s, primary school teaching was regarded as a career for non-degree holders, and students fresh out of upper secondary schools could complete a two- or three-year sub-degree level program and immediately enter the classroom. The reforms of the mid to late-90s meant that primary school teachers are now required to hold a bachelor’s degree. Despite this move towards greater selectivity and the fact that teaching is now considered a wellrespected profession, attracting top recruits into teaching is still a major focus of Hong Kong education leaders. In 2007, the University of Hong Kong reported that the secondary school grades of teachers admitted to the education program were still lower than those admitted in other fields. Recruitment and Compensation To gain admission to a teacher education program, candidates are assessed on their knowledge of various subjects through practical tests, and typically must undergo at least one interview to assess aptitude for teaching and fluency in both English and Chinese. Each institution offering a teacher education program sets their own admissions requirements for their programs. However, to help raise the quality of young people entering teaching, the Education Bureau (EDB) is becoming increasingly involved in teacher education, producing guidelines and standards that all new and existing teachers must meet. In order to be hired as a teacher, a candidate must apply for registration at the EDB. They are either granted “qualified teacher” status (for candidates who have completed teacher training), which allows them to teach in any subject area, or “permitted teacher” status, for candidates who have met the minimum education requirements but do not have formal teacher training. Permitted teachers may become qualified teachers after completing in-service training. Neither type of candidate is required to pass a test in order to become registered. Hong Kong’s efforts to standardize and improve teacher training and qualifications has been successful. Unlike just 20 years ago, the majority of teachers at both the primary and secondary levels have a bachelor’s degree or higher: 75% at the primary level, and 92% at the secondary level. Also, the majority now have also completed official teacher training. Throughout their careers, teachers’ salaries reflect their level of experience and education as well as their performance, and are assessed by school administrators before being approved by the Education Bureau (EDB). Teachers’ salaries are commensurate with those of other professional positions in Hong Kong. The government is now in the process of imposing a salary cap on teachers who refuse to undergo government-mandated professional training in their first five years of service. The OECD does not yet report data on Hong Kong teachers’ salaries. However, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) 26 provides information on the salaries of teachers who earned post-secondary qualifications in math and science. In 2001, male teachers between the ages of 20 and 24 earned $1637 a month; this salary increased to $5756 a month for male teachers between the ages of 45-54. These numbers were lower for female teachers in the youngest age range ($1,311), but higher for female teachers between the ages of 45-54 ($7,561). Initial Education and Training Prior to the reforms of the last decade, teacher training was not highly regulated in Hong Kong, nor were the education requirements particularly high. Primary and lower secondary teachers were educated in two- or three-year subdegree-level programs at government-run Colleges of Education, while upper secondary teachers typically completed a postgraduate diploma after finishing university education. However, in the mid-1990s, the Colleges of Education joined, forming the Hong Kong Institute of Education, which grants both bachelor’s degrees and postgraduate diplomas. Teacher candidates are now educated either at one of three comprehensive universities, or the Open University of Hong Kong, or the Institute of Education. Teachers may also become qualified through the Non-Graduate Teacher Qualifications Assessment, intended for candidates who enter teaching later in their careers. The Education Bureau (EDB) does not want to close qualified candidates out of the teaching field or discourage them from becoming teachers through specific training requirements. In conjunction with the shift in teacher education opportunities, the Education Commission has increased the education requirements for teachers at both the primary and secondary levels. Since the 2004-05 school year, all teachers are required to hold post-secondary degrees. In addition to subject-based learning, teachers are also expected to leave the program with several skills crucial to running a successful classroom, including good communication skills; a positive attitude toward teaching, learning and working with other people; sociability; physical and psychological well-being; and assertiveness, flexibility and adaptability. There is a clear emphasis on understanding student needs in addition to subject and curriculum mastery. Career Ladders Teachers’ career prospects depend on which pathway into teaching they take. A teacher who holds a teacher’s certificate or the status of a qualified teacher based on their performance on the Non-Graduate Teacher Qualifications Assessment may be promoted to the level of Assistant Principal once he or she possesses the appropriate experience (typically several years of teaching followed by several years of experience as a head teacher) and any necessary additional training. A teacher with a post-graduate diploma in education may ultimately be promoted to the position of Headmaster or Headmistress following appropriate job experience and training. Because salary levels in the education system are relatively rigid, principals use promotion as the primary incentive to ensure teacher performance. Professional Development Formal professional development courses are offered through the Hong Kong Institute of Education, the Hong Kong Baptist University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong. These courses range from short, in-service education programs to longer post-graduate degree programs. However, there are no hard and fast requirements for teacher professional development. The Education Bureau (EDB) encourages teachers to improve their practice through “professional development activities” for an official target of 50 hours per year. The EDB reported that in the 2001-02 school year, 80% of teachers polled reported engaging in some kind of professional development, and 60% of the respondents had reported doing professional development activities for 50 hours or more. The Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications (ACTEQ) is currently in the process of establishing a Teacher Competencies Framework (TCF) that individual schools will be able to use as a “map” while formulating their own frameworks based on the needs of their teachers and students. Hong Kong 27 The EDB has also established three voluntary “staff interflow schemes,” which are intended to provide professional development through collaboration and exposure to other career pathways. Teachers may temporarily transfer to the EDB, EDB employees may take temporary non-teaching positions in schools, and people in different roles and positions in the EDB may also apply for a temporary transfer within the EDP. The EDB hopes that this interflow will increase collaboration between schools and the EDB, give teachers and EDB officers a better understanding of the other’s role in the education system, and promote the development of new ideas through new perspectives. Instructional Systems System  Design   Pre-school education is available to students between the ages of 3 and 5, though all pre-school and kindergarten programs are run by private organizations. Students attend primary school between the ages of 6 and 12. Parents may apply for admission to a government or “aided” school of their choice; the success of their applications is determined by the Education Bureau’s (EDB) set criteria for each school. Typically, the school can fill up to 50% of their places with children who are not in their local neighborhood. 60% of the non-local admissions are reserved for siblings of current students or children of staff, making up about 30% of the school’s total admission. Forty percent of the non-local admissions (20% of the school’s total) are allocated for students outside of the school’s neighborhood. Students are awarded points to determine their eligibility for these positions. The highest points go to the previously mentioned groups, as well as to students whose parents or siblings have graduated from that school. Other points are awarded for being a first-born child, having the same religious affiliation as the school, being the right age, and having a parent belong to the organization that sponsors the school. Parents may also choose to avoid this process, and go through the central allocation process, in which their child is assigned a school based on school enrollment, parent choice and random lottery. Following primary school, students may again choose to apply for admission to a secondary school of choice. At this level, the schools, rather than the EDB, determine their own admissions standards. Students may also remain in the central allocation system, where the assignment procedures are the same as in the primary school central allocation process. As of the 2011-2012 school year, after three years of lower secondary education, students take the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) to determine which upper secondary school they may attend. At this juncture, around age 15, students may choose to continue in an academic track, or switch to vocational education, where they can earn a diploma that will enable them to continue with vocational training at the post-secondary level. Secondary school students often spend many additional hours a week in tutoring schools or with private tutors in order to get ahead in their classes and to prepare for the examinations. Hong Kong has recently shifted from the British model, in which students attended six years of primary school, five years of lower secondary before sitting for one set of gateway exams, and an optional additional two years of upper secondary before sitting for a second set of exams, to a model more similar to that of the US. Now, students will attend six years of primary school and only sit for an exam at the end of an additional six years of secondary school, which will help determine their entrance to university. Under the old system, university bachelor’s degree programs took three years; under the new system, they will take four years. The government undertook this change to make their universities more globally competitive by offering four-year programs. Curriculum The Education Bureau (EDB) sets the framework for school curriculum development. The framework is comprehensive, comprising detailed guides for each subject area for both primary and secondary school as well as seminars and workshops for teachers and administrators to prepare them to teach the curriculum. The curriculum is based on eight key learning areas: Chinese language, English language, mathematics, science and technology, social science and humanities, sports and arts, applied learning (workplace skills and experiences) and other learning experiences (service learning workplace visits and overseas experiences). Students who intend to go on to university must demonstrate performance in four areas: Chinese, English, mathematics and liberal studies, which is an interdisciplinary field encompassing history, social studies and civics and citizenship education, all with a focus on 28 the major global issues of the 21st century. In addition to the learning areas, the curriculum is intended to help students develop in the areas of ethics, intellect, physique, social skills and aesthetics. Ultimately, students are expected to understand their roles in society and their national identities, possess critical thinking and independent learning skills, enjoy independent reading and lead a healthy lifestyle. Schools are responsible for formulating the day-to-day lesson plans, keeping these guidelines and end goals in mind. Because Hong Kong wants to ensure that its curriculum is rigorous by an international standard, policymakers regularly benchmark the curriculum, and update it to ensure it is up-to-date with international best practice. Assessment Externally assessed exams are managed by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA). Up to the 2011-2012 academic year, students take the Hong Kong Certificate of Education (HKCEE) and the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (HKALE) at the end of lower and upper secondary education, respectively. These system-wide exams are considered to be comparable to the British system of O- and A-level examinations. Under the new system, students will now take the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) after completing six years of secondary education, instead of taking the test at the end of lower secondary and another test at the end of upper secondary education. The first class will sit for this exam in 2012. Students will be tested in four core subjects (Chinese, English, math and liberal studies) as well as two to three elective subjects. The HKDSE will be offered in 20 elective subjects and foreign languages in addition to the core subjects. Students will be assessed based on set standards of expected achievement, which are broken down into five levels of competence. These exams will serve as an admissions component to institutes of higher education. Additionally, school-based formative assessments will now also be counted as a component of public examination results, so that a greater sense of student knowledge and skill level can be taken into account. The Hong Kong Examination Authority (HKEAA) also provides a number of school-based assessments that individual schools may administer to their students. These assessments are standardized but are marked by the students’ teachers, rather than an external body, and may count towards a school’s public assessment results. The HKEAA also suggests that these assessments be used as part of a student’s academic development, as they allow teachers to be aware of student problems and progress and they can adjust accordingly. Gateways There are no examinations between primary and secondary school in Hong Kong. Under the current system, students must take the Certificate of Education Examination after the first five years of secondary school (age 15 or 16) which will lead either to two more years of school, or entrance into a profession. If a student chooses to complete an additional two years of secondary schooling, they must take A-level examinations at the end of two years, which help to determine what type of higher education they may pursue. Students can enter vocational education immediately after the O-level exams, and are eligible for higher vocational education after completing secondary vocational education. Under the new system, there will be no gateway tests until the end of upper secondary school, at which point the gateway exam (the HKDSE) will determine a student’s higher education prospects. Instruction Primary schools run on one of three schedules: morning, afternoon and whole-day schooling. Based on the government’s recommendation, most primary schools have adopted or are in the process of adopting whole-day instruction. Students are taught, for the most part, in Chinese as the main instructional language, and English is incorporated as a second language. In some primary schools the primary and secondary languages are reversed. Curriculum reforms in 2001 and 2002 placed a new emphasis on expanding teaching styles and activities to promote achievement for students with a wide range of learning needs, and to that end, students have experience with group and practical learning in addition to more traditional teaching practices such as lecturing. Hong Kong 29 This philosophy extends into secondary school. Students complete the first three years of secondary school in agebased cohorts; around the age of 15, they then can decide to leave academic-oriented education for vocational education. Recent government reforms ensured funding for all types of upper secondary education, meaning all students may undertake six years of secondary education regardless of academic performance. At all levels of compulsory education, the government promotes “life-wide learning.” This philosophy promotes learning in “authentic environments” such as science museums or farms and provides a connection between the classroom and extracurricular activities. The government has also placed a new emphasis on technology in the classroom, which has resulted in an overhaul of schools’ technological infrastructures, information technology training for teachers, and the development of an e-Learning initiative. These efforts are intended to promote an understanding of the uses and abuses of digital resources as well as to prepare students to live and work in the twenty-first century. System and School Organization Education  Finance   All students in Hong Kong are entitled to 12 years of free public education, including full-time vocational courses for students who choose not to pursue academic-oriented upper secondary education. This was upgraded from nine years as of the 2008-2009 school year; students are now entitled to three years of senior secondary education in public sector schools. The government divides schools that receive public funding into four categories: government schools, which are fully funded and run by the government; aided schools, which are guaranteed government funding but are run by voluntary groups; direct subsidy scheme schools, which are largely government-funded but enjoy greater autonomy than the first two categories; and private schools, which may receive land leases and small grants from the government. Schools in the first two categories provide free education through secondary school, and must use the governmentrecommended curriculum. Hong Kong spends 4.4% of its GDP on education, lower than the OECD average of 5.9%. Annual Expenditure per Student as Percent of GDP per capita 2010, Source: World Bank School Management and Organization The Education Bureau (EDB) outlines the administration policies of government and aided schools for each school year. This guide is extensive and detailed, covering topics ranging from how curriculum should be taught to the recommended first aid items for a school clinic to how to handle school income and operate school bank accounts. The school principals are responsible for following and implementing these guidelines, although there are also four Regional Education Offices (REOs) that provide support to administrators. REOs also are responsible for providing leadership on school development (improving or establishing schools) in their regions, handling the closure or re-provisioning of schools, and organizing regional teacher networking opportunities in order to disseminate best practices. Hong Kong 30 Accountability and Incentive Systems Though Hong Kong does not officially rank its schools, they are held accountable to the public through their public assessment results, which are made up of student performance on a variety of national and school-based tests. These results are typically published in the media. The media also publishes other statistics relevant to school performance. Multiple times each year, newspapers will publish statistics and information on the number of teachers who have not met language proficiency requirements (Hong Kong teachers must be proficient in both Chinese and English) or who are teaching in fields in which they did not receive formal training. The Education Bureau (EDB) has developed a Quality Assurance for Schools program, with a specific, publicly available framework, self-assessment tools for administrators, and circulars providing information to parents and educators. Because roughly 50% of students choose to apply to government or aided schools of their choice rather than attend the government or aided school in their neighborhood, accountability is an important component of Hong Kong’s educational system. Parent and Community Participation Parent and community participation is an integral part of Hong Kong’s reformed education system. When the government decided to overhaul the system in 1999, they invited more than 800 community leaders to a meeting in order to weigh in on proposed policies. This prompted such a public outpouring of dissatisfaction with the education system that the Education Commission not only used this feedback to direct their reforms but encouraged every school to have a “tree of hope” on which students can hang tags stating, “I have a hope: Education should be …” Following this meeting, a document was published detailing the new educational aims. The Education Commission invited public commentary and received more than 40,000 suggestions. Thus education reform and parent and community participation have been, and remain, intertwined throughout the ongoing reform process. Parents are also invited to participate in their children’s schooling through volunteering, meeting with teachers, attending school informational sessions, and helping their students with their schoolwork. A Hong Kong Council of Social Service study from 2010 found that 42% of local and 55% of ethnic minority parents reported helping with their child’s homework “every single day,” and 75% of local and 89% of ethnic minority parents reported that they offer to help. In the same poll, 38% of ethnic minority parents reported “frequently discussing post-high school plans” with their children. When asked about their education goals for their children, 62.1% of ethnic minority parents said they wanted their child to go as far as he or she could; an additional 31.9% said they expected their children to complete college or university. These numbers were essentially reversed for local parents, with 63.9% expecting their children to complete college or university, and 32.8% wanting their child to go as far as he or she could. Only 1.1% of local and 0.5% of ethnic minority parents reported that they expected their child to enter vocational training. Education For All Student  Support  Systems   Hong Kong has a range of programs aimed at providing early childhood education and other support to disadvantaged children. Although all kindergartens in Hong Kong are run privately, the government provides vouchers to cover kindergarten school fees for low-income parents. Additionally, the government has built specific kindergarten facilities in public housing estates to ensure access to these programs; these schools are also eligible for government rent discounts. For students at the primary and secondary levels, the government provides school lunch subsidies as well as a Community Care Fund dedicated to creating cross-boundary learning experiences to expand the perspectives of low-income students. Other programs include after-school learning and support classes, the Committee on Home-School Cooperation, the Health School Policy and crisis management guidance. These programs are dedicated to educating parents about the importance of their role in their child’s education, promoting physical wellbeing and intervening in troubled situations. Hong Kong 31 For students who are new to Hong PISA 2012: Variation in Mathematics Performance Explained Kong, the government funds a sixby Socioeconomic Background month full-time initiation program in order to help students integrate into their community and education system before being placed in public schools. For students who do not speak Chinese upon arrival, the government has designated 19 primary and 9 secondary schools as Chinese Language Learning Support Centers. These schools have additional curricular resources and run summer bridge programs and after-school Chinese classes. Hong Kong also recognizes that some students have special needs. Special education in Hong Source: OECD Kong takes place both in mainstream schools and in special school facilities; additionally, there is one hospital school that operates classes at 18 different hospitals. Physicians and specialists measure the nature of each child’s needs or disabilities, and students are placed into the appropriate program based on expert recommendation and with parental consent. The government provides funding for special school as well as special education programs within mainstream schools; the Education Bureau also provides resources for teachers and administrators in mainstream schools to help them serve this population. As of 2008, there is also a five-year professional development program for teachers interested in learning more about educating students with special needs. Hong Kong considers many types of disability, from learning, emotional or behavioral difficulties to physical impairment, to be “special educational needs.” The Hong Kong Education Bureau’s (EDB) statistics indicate that as of the 2010-2011 school year, 7,803 of 780,849 students in the Hong Kong school system were classified as “special education” – just under 1%. Low-Performing Schools Because students are able to attend their school of choice if they meet the admissions requirements, there tends to be a divide between these “choice” schools with pre-selected student bodies and the local schools that students attend because they did not or could not choose another school. Unsurprisingly, the majority of these schools are in lowincome areas and often near public housing. The government seeks to redress some of these inequalities through the national curriculum guidelines, standardizing classroom content; teacher networking between schools in order to share best practices; an increase in the overall level of education new teachers need in order to become qualified to teach; placement assistance for students and parents navigating the school choice process; and subsidies for students who cannot afford school fees. School-to-Work Transition Vocational Education in Hong Kong is directed by the Vocational Training Council, which works in conjunction with the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education, the VTC School of Business and Information Systems, the Hong Kong Design Institute and the Youth College. The Council is made up of 18 non-government members including leading figures in education, industry and the service sector as well as three government officials: the Commissioner for Labour, the Director-General of Trade and Industry and the Deputy Secretary for Education. This way the government can ensure communication and policy decisions based on the actual workforce needs in each of these sectors. In 2008, the government began providing funding for full-time vocational courses for students between the ages of 15 and 18, hoping that this would encourage students who would otherwise have dropped out of school to continue their education. These students may receive a Diploma in Vocational Education, which prepares them either for 32 employment or further education, either at the degree or non-degree level. Once these students complete upper secondary education, they can participate in a comprehensive system of tertiary vocational education and training in place, run by the VTC and leading to a variety of diplomas and certificates. Also in 2008, the government introduced the Qualification Framework, which was intended to “enhance the competitiveness of the workforce in Hong Kong.” The framework outlines seven levels of qualifications in academic, vocational and continuing education sectors, and programs that comply with the Qualification Framework are guaranteed by the government to have provided students with specific competencies and skills. This framework is available to students in schools as well as adults in the workforce, and allows employers and employees to set learning targets as well as providing an informal “curriculum” for students to move through the pathways. The government has several “Qualifications Framework Support Schemes,” mostly in the form of grants or registration fee subsidies, available to education and training providers who want to ensure that their programs are accredited. The Education Bureau (EDB) funds a financial assistance scheme to help low-income adults take designated evening adult education courses. These courses allow adults to receive the equivalent of a secondary education. Other courses are provided by various universities and private institutes. Hong Kong 33 Shanghai-China Overview When Deng Xiaoping took power in China not long after the death of Mao Zedong, he inherited a country whose economy and education system had both been destroyed by the preceding government. Deng, concluding that there would probably not be another world war in the foreseeable future, decided to concentrate his energies on economic growth. Declaring that, “To get rich is glorious,” he began an era of radical economic experimentation by introducing many elements of a market economy in Guangdong Province in the Pearl River Delta in southern China, and opening up China to direct foreign investment from all over the world. Neither he nor China ever looked back. Within a few years, the coastal provinces of China became the “workshop of the world,” experiencing explosive economic growth. China as a whole has been experiencing growth of 9-10% per year ever since. The speed and scale of these developments is probably without precedent in the history of the world. DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness 28 Rank 2014 INSEAD Global 29 Innovation Rank 2014 Population 1,355,692,576 Languages Chinese Han Chinese 91.5% Ethnic Makeup Other 8.5% GDP (PPP) $13.39 trillion GDP Per Capita $9,800 Agriculture: 10% Origin of GDP Industry: 43.9% Services: 46.1% Unemployment 0.41% Youth Unemployment 9.7% Adults with Tertiary Education 4% In an effort to cleanse the country of the influence Source: CIA World Factbook (September 2014) of the bourgeoisie, Mao had closed the schools and Wold Bank Data (September 2014) universities and sent educated people of all and OECD Education at a Glance 2014 descriptions to the countryside to be “reeducated.” But Deng understood that his economic vision could not be realized by an uneducated workforce. From the beginning, he strongly emphasized the importance of making China as competitive from the standpoint of education achievement as he wanted it to be in economic terms. Though its education system had been devastated by the Cultural Revolution, China was not without educational resources. Perhaps the most important of these resources was a deep and widely shared belief among the Chinese in the importance of education and their conviction that effort, not inherited intelligence, is the key to educational success. For more than a millennium, advancement in Chinese society meant joining the military or the government bureaucracy. The key to both was getting high scores on exams that all were eligible to take. The Emperor himself was the chief examiner. These exams were given in the arena of what we would today think of as the liberal arts: poetry, literature and so on. Success entailed rote mastery of a great deal of material, much of it very abstruse. But, at least in theory, a poor farmer’s son stood as good a chance of success as the offspring of a feudal lord, if only he put in enough effort. Century in and century out, folk tales accumulated of young people who had emerged from poor and obscure lives into the sunlight of material and social success by making the nearly superhuman effort needed to succeed on the exams. In Chinese society then and now, social safety nets were thin and porous. Families looked to their children to support them in their old age. And “family” included the whole extended family. Thus the whole family got behind 34 the student in his effort to succeed on the exams, and the whole family suffered if the student failed. Little wonder that, in this society, teachers were highly valued and students were willing to put in a lot of both time and effort into their education, and teaching became an occupation with high status in the society. China’s Education System at a Glance After Deng took over in China in the late 70s, the nation set out to reach parity with the West in education at every level, a truly daunting goal, given the very high rates of illiteracy in China, the extent of the prior destruction of its education infrastructure and teaching force and the depth of poverty in this very rural nation. Professors and teachers began to return from their exile in the rural communities to which they had been sent. Schools and universities reopened. Deng sent many in the government to be educated in the West. By 2006, as many as 80% of China’s top leadership had been educated there. China’s first objective was to reduce illiteracy in the adult population and improve enrollment rates in the primary schools on a scale that was unimaginable for most of the nations of the world, goals that it achieved in a remarkably short time. At the higher education level, Deng set a goal of creating 100 research universities in China. Later, his protégé, Jiang Zemin, would set a goal of having a substantial fraction of this number be world class. In 1986, China passed a law requiring nine years of compulsory education. By the late 1990s, this goal was achieved. By 1997, the government had stopped assigning graduates to careers. In 1999, the government required universities to expand enrollment by 50% by 2000, making it possible for many adults to get the university education they had missed in the Cultural Revolution. They mandated an additional 25% expansion in 2000 and a 22% expansion in 2001. By 2009, 99.4% of students were enrolled in primary education; 99% enrolled in junior secondary education; 79.2% at the senior secondary level; and 24% in higher education. Now, enrollment in primary school is universal, as is enrollment in lower secondary school. Upper secondary schools, combining the figures for academic and vocational education, now enroll about 80% of the cohort. To achieve these goals, the Chinese needed teachers. Many of the well-educated young people who had been sent from the cities to the rural areas during the Cultural Revolution had become teachers in rural schools, though they had no training. The post-Mao government sent many of them to teachers colleges for formal instruction in teaching and many returned to the cities to teach. The government attracted many more by offering priority admissions in its universities to prospective teachers. Though teachers’ pay is not high, it is rising and teachers have several ways of supplementing their incomes. Normal class size in China is 50 students, though it can range to as many as 100 students, though class sizes are rapidly declining due to China’s one-child policy. Teachers work in subject-based “teaching-study” groups every day to develop lessons and improve instruction. Many hours go into the preparation of a single lesson. Other teachers, principals and district education officers will observe the way individual teachers implement the crafted lessons. The profession is divided into four grades or levels, and the teachers in the upper levels have major responsibility for leading the lesson development process, demonstrating effective lessons and bringing along teachers who are not as advanced as they are. Shanghai-China 35 PISA 2012 Mean Scores by Country for Reading, Mathematics, and Science Once the Chinese government was on its way toward achieving its quantitative goals in the education arena, it began to turn to issues of quality. In the schools, during much of the period following the accession of the Communists to power, a system of “key schools” had developed that became a source of strength for the system. These were schools in which the state invested considerably more than in the regular state schools and which were therefore able to attract excellent teachers and provide top-notch facilities. When Deng came to power, these schools became laboratories and models for other schools in China, creating a system for the development and spread of superior methods and curriculum. Today, most of the students who attend Chinese universities come from key secondary schools. For many Chinese, access to university education is synonymous with access to success in life. The universities are graded by the Ministry of Education. Much of one’s success depends on which university one gets into, and, within the university, which program one gets into. And that depends, with very few exceptions, solely on one’s score on the entrance exams. The score on the mathematics exam counts for not less than 25% of the total score, wherever one wants to go and whatever one plans to study. The result is that Chinese students put an enormous effort into studying and, in particular, into the study of mathematics. The amount of time that a typical university-bound secondary school student puts into studying may be as much as twice that of an American student of the same age. These features of the Chinese system—the ancient belief that education is the only path to success, the conviction that it is effort and not genes that determines success in education, the meritocratic nature of the Chinese education system, the very high priority accorded education by the post-Mao government of China, the care with which lessons are constructed, the fact that teachers’ work is not private but is the object of continual professional observation and critique, the determination of the Chinese people to match western educational benchmarks, the enormous efforts made by Chinese students and the amount of time they put into studying, the emphasis in Chinese education on the study of mathematics—would all lead the observer to expect the Chinese to do well in international comparisons of student achievement. But few expected what actually happened when Shanghai participated for the first time in the PISA rankings: Shanghai topped all of the other entrants in the 2009 PISA league tables. In China, the four largest cities have the governmental status of provinces. One of these cities is Shanghai. While Beijing is the political capital of China, Shanghai is its business capital and its most international city. It has long had a very special status in China, and has long enjoyed the right to take its own path in certain arenas of public policy when other cities and provinces have had to follow the policies set by the national government in Beijing. This has been true in education. Shanghai is China’s largest city, with a population of over 20 million people, and one of the largest cities in the world. It accounts for only 1% of China’s population and 0.6% of its land area, but it produces one-eighth of China’s income. It is important to remember that Shanghai is not typical of China as a whole, but just as important to keep in mind that China is a country that is extremely pragmatic, and makes a practice of experimenting carefully and then rapidly spreading what works through the entire nation. One would expect other coastal provinces to be not far behind Shanghai and interior provinces to learn quickly from their coastal peers. In 1985, Shanghai won for itself the right to set its own exams for entrance into its higher education institutions. This led to a crucial element in the Shanghai reforms, major changes in the exams and therefore the Shanghai-China 36 curriculum from a heavy emphasis on memorization and rote learning to an emphasis on the ability to use what one has learned to solve real-world problems, on cross-disciplinary studies and on the ability to solve problems of a kind that one has not seen before, drawing on a deep understanding of what one has studied. In 1988, Shanghai allowed its students more choice in what had previously been a highly prescribed curriculum. That was followed in 1998 by integrating the sciences with the humanities and by a greater emphasis on active inquiry in the learning process. These changes produced a curriculum balanced between a core curriculum that is the same for all students, an enriched curriculum that permits students to choose their own electives and an inquiry-based curriculum, which is implemented mainly in extra-curricular activities. Overall, the heart of the curriculum has moved from the acquisition of knowledge to the development of student capacity to acquire and effectively use knowledge over time. Over the last two decades, Shanghai has worked hard to improve teachers’ capacities, too, steadily raising the level of education required to teach in the schools. Many teachers now have master’s degrees. Every teacher is expected to get at least 240 hours of professional development every five years. A web site was created to provide a wide range of support services to teachers. Under the slogan, “return class time to students,” teachers have been encouraged to lecture less and stimulate active student engagement more. Another slogan states that “to every question there should be more than a single answer,” suggesting that the teacher may not have all the answers and the student responses to questions other than those the teacher envisioned may have real value. Videos have been made and widely distributed that illustrate teaching methods that facilitate this shift in teaching style. Shanghai has been a national leader in dealing with the problem of migrant children. In China, the right to receive a wide variety of government services is restricted to the residents of the province providing those services. But approximately one out of every five people in China are migrants, typically rural people who have left the impoverished countryside to find work in the booming cities. Because, until recently, they did not have the right to send their children to schools in the province in which they find work, they had to take some of what little they earned to pay for expensive, but low quality private schooling. The Shanghai government, recognizing the contribution that migrant workers have made to the city, have been working to find ways to provide not only places, but a quality education for the migrants in their education system. Among the things that the Shanghai government has worked on is a long-standing problem of wide disparity in the quality of the schools in their basic education system. The decrease in the size of the school-age cohort has helped. The government has evaluated their schools in terms of the quality of the physical structure and also the quality of the education program and it has classified its schools on a four level index on both dimensions. Those that meet the government’s standards in both dimensions get an A. Those that qualify in neither get a D. Many C and D schools were simply closed. Some were merged into A and B schools, others reorganized after a renovation in the physical structure. In many cases, teachers were transferred from high-performing schools to low-performing schools and from lowperforming schools to high-performing schools. In some cases, outstanding principals were asked to take over lowperforming schools. In other cases, young or low-performing teachers and principals were transferred to highperforming schools, and, when they had learned how to perform competently, transferred back to their original schools. In still other cases, low-performing schools were paired with high-performing schools, and with Teacher Professional Development Institutes, to build their capacity through this collaborative arrangement. And, in the most recent development, high-performing school managements have been asked to take on one or more low-performing schools as satellite schools. Often in such arrangements, a deputy principal in the high-performing school is asked to become the director of the satellite school. Another form of the same arrangement is the formation of consortium or cluster of schools around one very strong school in a collaborative. Notwithstanding Shanghai’s outstanding performance on the PISA assessments, many in Shanghai still see its education system as too rigid and its students as not sufficiently independent and creative to meet the challenges ahead. 37 Teacher and Principal Quality Teaching has traditionally been a well-respected profession in China. Although Chinese teachers’ salaries are not high, they are stable, particularly in big cities, and there are opportunities to supplement income through tutoring, which makes the profession attractive to many top candidates. Furthermore, universities allow priority admissions to teacher candidates, meaning that teacher programs often have the first choice of many top students. Recruitment and Compensation Teacher recruitment is not standardized in China. While it is a competitive job in urban areas, rural areas often must employ “supply teachers,” or teachers who are primarily substitutes, in their local schools. These teachers are not held to the same training and certification standards as teachers in wealthier and more populated parts of China. This did not used to be the case; prior to the 1980s, there was no uniform standard for teacher certification, and teachers tended to take jobs in their local communities. However, following a large policy shift, teachers were required to become certified and they were put on the public payroll. This change caused many rural teachers to seek jobs in cities, where the standard of living was higher and their new certificates made them qualified for good jobs. This led to the shortage of teachers in rural areas, a problem that persists today. In cities, teacher education programs at universities offer priority admission and are seen as a desirable option for strong students. In large, metropolitan cities like Shanghai and Beijing, teaching is seen as a respected, stable profession with competitive salaries. In these cities, teachers must hold degrees that far outpace what was required of teachers just twenty years ago. Teacher compensation varies widely across China. In rural community schools, teachers are sometimes not even on the public payroll and thus their salaries are subject to local fundraising. In large cities, teacher salaries are competitive with other professions. Teaching is seen as a desirable career largely because compensation is considered steady. Because China’s economy is changing so rapidly, many other white-collar jobs can be unstable in large cities. In addition to comparable wages and stability, teachers are able to supplement their salaries through private tutoring and lectures. Initial Education and Training Teachers in China are educated in one of three types of schools. Special upper secondary schools can qualify teachers for pre-school and primary positions with the equivalent of a high school diploma. Normal colleges, equivalent to a junior college, typically train junior secondary teachers for two years following upper secondary school. Finally, normal universities train upper secondary teachers in a four-year bachelor’s degree program. Following the receipt of the required diploma, teachers must be certified, which requires two additional steps. First, they must pass the National Mandarin Language Test; afterwards, they must take four examinations in the areas of pedagogy, psychology, teaching methods, and teaching ability. Candidates must demonstrate teaching abilities such as classroom management as part of this examination. Teachers who attend a university for teacher education are exempt from the four examinations because it is assumed that they will have this knowledge as a result of their program of study. Despite this rigor, however, teachers are not always qualified. While 98% of primary school teachers were qualified in 2004, only 79% of upper secondary teachers were qualified. This number drops to 65% for upper secondary school teachers in rural areas, though the rate of qualified primary teachers remained high across the board. In Shanghai, this system is slightly modified for primary school teachers. All primary school teachers must hold post-secondary, sub-degree diplomas, though they may enroll in a teacher education school immediately after completing junior secondary education. The programs are three to four years in length, and result in both a high school diploma and an additional certificate. These programs include courses in specific subjects, methodology and pedagogy. Teachers must also undergo practical training. Shanghai-China 38 Secondary school teachers must hold bachelor’s degrees along with a professional certificate, and many of these teachers also hold master’s degrees. Prospective secondary school teachers undergo a similar set of courses and practical training to primary school teachers, but may only enter teacher education programs after successfully completing upper secondary school. For upper secondary school teaching candidates, the program is typically four years; for those who want to teach lower secondary school, the program may be as short as two to three years. All new teachers are assigned a mentor for about three years. The mentoring process involves all aspects of teaching including teaching materials, lesson observation and critique, teaching methods and development and marking of exams. Both new teachers and their mentors are held accountable by the school leader for the new teacher’s progress. Career Ladders There are four formal hierarchical grades for teachers that indicate professional status in Shanghai: Third grade or novice teachers; Second grade or intermediate teachers; First-grade or advanced teachers; and Senior-grade or master teachers. Teachers are promoted from third to second grade after five years of teaching and a school-based evaluation. Promotion to the first grade requires another five years of service, in addition to being internally evaluated at the school and externally evaluated by the district. Master teachers are outstanding teachers and leaders. They have usually taught for many years and have distinguished themselves. This is an extraordinary honor, and is only bestowed on 0.1 percent of Shanghai’s teachers after careful consideration by district leaders. Within these grades there are several levels of pay increments. For novice teachers, are two levels of pay, and for intermediate and advanced teachers, there are three levels of pay each. Teachers are paid for performance. The base pay accounts for 70 percent of their salary and 30 percent is a bonus based on their performance assessment. In addition, pay varies based on the subject a teacher teaches, with salaries for Chinese, English and Math higher than other subjects. Evaluations of teachers are largely based on observation as well as performing demonstration lessons and orientations for new teachers as well as submitting work and teaching publications. The teaching load and additional responsibilities a teacher takes on (head teacher, class advisor, etc.) also counts in their evaluation, as does a peer and self-evaluation. For teachers interested in leadership roles, there are numerous paths to become involved in administrative work, and teachers can be promoted to administrative positions within schools, or to administrative and official positions in the education bureaucracy. Nearly all government education officials started as teachers. In order to join the leadership track, teachers must have a distinguished teaching record. Professional Development There are many opportunities for professional development in Chinese schools, and the emphasis on teacher evaluation means that teachers are constantly working to improve their practice. Most of the professional development is embedded in their job. Informally, teachers often observe one another’s lessons in order either to learn from a more experienced or more effective teacher, or to serve in a mentorship capacity for a new or struggling teacher. Teachers also often meet in regularly scheduled (often weekly) groups based on subject and level in order to discuss best practices, share advice, and create common lesson plans for the upcoming week. These meeting last several hours and sometimes involve outside experts. Teachers spend hours both together and on their own preparing a 45-minute lesson. Occasionally, teachers will give demonstration lessons; these serve either as a means of sharing best practice with other teachers or as a means of feedback and critique to the teacher giving the lesson. Sometimes these school-based groups meet with groups from other schools to be trained, to plan programs or to share ideas. Teachers in Shanghai spend less than 50 percent of their working hours teaching. Indeed it is reported that they teach about 12 hours per week. Shanghai-China 39 Shanghai schools require teachers to undergo continuous professional development throughout their careers. New teachers are required to spent 120 hours on professional development in their first year teaching and then a total of 360 hours every five years. Senior level teachers are required to spend at least 540 hours on professional development every five years. In addition to this requirement, Shanghai also established that new teachers should spend at least 240 hours of training in their first five years of teaching, with the option of spending 540 hours on training. This training was to be divided among: morality and literacy courses; knowledge and skills training; and practical experience. In addition to this coursework, teachers are expected to participate in school-based lesson planning and sharing. Senior level teachers are also required to spend time on educational research. In 2008, to facilitate teacher development and collaboration, a web platform was established so teachers may access and share curriculum ideas, research papers and various other resources. System and School Organization Education  Finance   Over the past 30 years, the funding of Chinese schools has moved from a highly centralized, national funding system to one that is much more decentralized. This was largely due to an overhaul of all public funding in China in which a multi-level funding system was created. Now, local governments are primarily responsible for the provision, administration and funding of primary through upper secondary schools. This has resulted in a system that is highly inequitable across China, as rural areas have been unable to produce and allocate the same revenue as urban business centers, and consequently are sometimes unable even to pay their teachers. However, it has also meant that local governments can allocate funds in innovative ways; for example, Shanghai abolished the “Key School” system in which a handful of elite schools were privileged over all others for funding and resources, and has made the school funding system more equitable, producing better outcomes for a wider array of students. In addition to government funding, schools can also receive funding from private enterprises in the form of donations, or through school fees, without being classified as private schools. In the past 15 to 20 years, the government has encouraged the establishment of private schools under the proviso that they will meet the same standards as public schools. Private schools had traditionally been attended primarily by the children of migrant workers because the jurisdictions to which they migrated were not obligated to provide them with any government services, so private schools catered to an underprivileged population. The government now hopes that by allowing private schools of a different sort – namely, elite schools with high admissions standards and presumably high tuition – they will encourage innovation in the fields of science, technology and education. In 2008, China spent 3.3% of its GDP on education as compared to the OECD average of 5.9%. Per student, China spent $1593, as compared to the OECD average of $8,831. School Management and Organization The central Chinese government provides policy directives, curriculum guidelines and materials to all schools, but in the past few decades the government has begun to shift some responsibility from the national to the provincial and municipal levels. The Ministry of Education is responsible for setting the national curriculum, establishing standard syllabi for the curriculum’s required subjects, evaluating and approving textbooks and teaching materials, supervising provincial education departments and providing special funding for underdeveloped school systems and teacher education programs. The Education Departments (sometimes called Education Committees) for provinces and major cities are responsible for preparing the education development plans for their region, developing provincial curricula based on the national curriculum, choosing the teaching materials to be used in the province, administering school programs and providing education subsidies to local governments. They have the power to reform gateway examinations and set additional standards for teacher training and continued employment. Shanghai-China 40 Local governments are responsible for implementing the curriculum and administering funding. At the school level, teachers are encouraged to develop their own lesson plans, and schools also have increasing freedom in adopting extracurricular subjects and teaching materials. Principals have some degree of control over staffing, and can set class sizes and teacher assignments. Shanghai schools have taken advantage of the opportunity they now have to take part in choosing materials. Schools can adopt materials provided to them by the ministry or they can now identify other teaching materials they would like to use, although these still require ministry approval before classroom implementation. Greater local control over school funding, too, has made a big difference in this region. Shanghai has grouped schools into clusters and partnerships to more easily share resources and administration, and has poured capital into improving the facilities of the majority of their schools, as well as working to distribute funding more equitably than in other parts of China. Accountability and Incentive Systems Accountability in China is managed through social expectations as well as limited systematic procedures and indicators. Teachers are expected to constantly be improving their practice through preparation and continuing development. They work closely with and are monitored frequently by their peers as well as school and government administrators, and these evaluations impact their career paths and salaries. For members of the public who want specific performance indicators, they have access to school examination results. Because so much of Chinese educational success is based on these results, it is extremely easy for the public to determine which schools are successful and which are not; all are accountable in this way. Schools at all levels are informally ranked, and parents often choose which school their children attend. Prior to the 1990s, these school rankings were based on formative and summative student assessments and also affected teachers’ incomes. However, the Ministry of Education has moved away from these measures, and has placed new emphasis on rating, rather than ranking, schools. The Shanghai Education Commission is also responsible for inspecting schools every three years based on both common measures and on the school’s stated individual goals, taking into account research data and parent and teacher feedback. In Shanghai, teachers and principals are also held accountable by school administrators and their fellow teachers. Top performing educators are lauded and held up as examples to other educators, who are fully expected to draw lessons from their peers’ success. Similarly, top performing educators are expected to aid in the development of their less successful peers. This process is facilitated through school partnerships and clusters as well as the practice of having successful school administrative teams temporarily take over the administration of lower performing schools, aiding both the students and the staff. Parent and Community Participation Educational success is completely bound up in familial and social expectations in China. Researchers consider familial interest and pressure to be the main motivating factors for a student; this, combined with high-stakes examinations at various points in the educational system means that students frequently spend the majority of their waking hours focused on their schoolwork and on self-improvement. Parents will often devote hours of family time in the evening to helping their children with their homework. This familial pressure has led to a culture of “cram schools” and external tutoring in China. Students will often attend these schools or meet with private tutors after their official classes have ended for the day in order to improve their classroom performance and, more importantly, increase their odds for success on any important gateway exams, whether for upper secondary school or for university. It is estimated that 80% of Chinese students meet with exam tutors, and even parents who are opposed to the cram school culture will often engage tutors ahead of important assessments. Shanghai-China 41 Education for All Student  Support  Systems   PISA  2012:  Variation  in  Mathematics  Performance   Explained  by  Socioeconomic  Background   Shanghai has turned its attention in recent years to ensuring greater access to education for all students, as well as greater support for struggling students. By 2020, Shanghai hopes to greatly reduce the student workload so that students are better able to thrive in the school environment, as well as create universal free preschool programs to give students a head start for primary school, or put them on even footing with children who attend private preschools. The largest group of struggling students in China is children of migrant workers, who have not until recently been entitled to public education in the Source: OECD jurisdictions to which their parents migrate. Roughly 20% of Chinese students are the children of migrant workers. Two-thirds of those children live in cities with their parents, but the rest remain in rural villages without their parents. Ensuring educational achievement among this population is one of China’s main concerns. In 2002, the Chinese government made it a policy that the education of migrant children is the responsibility of the city in which they live. Shanghai has a large proportion of migrant people living and working in the city, which has contributed to its economic expansion. Unlike the majority of other cities in China, Shanghai recognizes the importance of making sure that this large minority of students gets a quality education. Therefore, Shanghai has adopted a policy of integration, allowing migrant children to attend public schools alongside the children of Shanghai citizens. China’s schools also provide a variety of options to students with special educational needs. These include special schools and/or classes to provide extra help in mainstream classrooms. In 1986, the government mandated that students with special needs must attend school for nine years as do children without special needs. Because some regions do not have the resources to provide special schools or classes for these students, a policy of suiban jiudu has emerged, roughly translating as “China’s inclusion.” Under this policy, regular schools would formulate special classes and teachers would make efforts to serve students with special needs in mainstream classes as well. This policy was initially adopted in the poor, rural areas of China and continues in areas where special needs cannot be formally provided for. However, the policy remains largely informal and rural teachers are not actually trained to provide special needs education to these students. A 2004 report from China’s Ministry of Education indicates that in 1996-97 (the most recent year for which they provided data), 55.7% of students with special needs were educated in mainstream schools. This differs somewhat in Shanghai. The Shanghai Municipal Education Commission is working to develop formal special education pathways in mainstream and special schools, including the development of separate curricula and teaching materials for students with special needs. They have also formulated formal certificates of special education teacher training, and exempted special education schools from paying education fees or from paying for textbooks. In 2014, the Shanghai Education Commission announced plans to offer personalized education to children with disabilities who receive medical care. In this program, teachers and doctors work together to design a unique curriculum for each child based on their needs. Schools in this program are also assigned a community doctor who pays regular visits and offers help to the teachers and children who receive hospital check-ups, which are more comprehensive than those usually done in schools. Shanghai has 9,000 registered disabled students with conditions including blindness, deafness, autism, learning difficulties and Down’s syndrome. Shanghai-China 42 Low-Performing Schools The Chinese have a long tradition of “Key Schools,” or schools that receive greater resources than other schools, and are more selective. Because this system creates educational inequality, in the past few decades it has been on the decline. In the mid-1990s, Shanghai eliminated Key Schools by requiring students to attend their local school at the primary and lower secondary level, rather than compete for limited spots at local Key Schools. In response to parent concerns, this policy was modified somewhat by allowing students to attend schools in other neighborhoods if they were willing to pay a sponsorship fee. A new emphasis on neighborhood attendance has also had an impact on instruction; teachers were used to having fairly homogenous classrooms in regard to ability prior to this policy. Now teachers must undertake the more difficult task of teaching heterogeneous classrooms, and have stepped up to the challenge in most cases. Finally, neighborhood attendance has obviated the need for post-primary school exams, so students may spend more time learning and less time cramming in the early years of their education. Shanghai has also been a leader in addressing the needs of low-performing schools. Several rounds of school renovations and restructurings have occurred since the 1980s; in addition to pouring in capital to fix buildings and purchase resources, the government has also sought to strengthen teaching staff and appoint competent principals and has eliminated tuition and supply fees for all students. Further efforts have included practicing positive discrimination in determining funding, transferring successful teachers to low-performing schools, and performing several rounds of renovations and school closings in order to bring all school physical resources up to an acceptable level. Finally, the Shanghai government has encouraged schools to take care of and learn from one another by establishing clusters of schools with different performance levels; creating pairs of urban and rural schools; requiring “good” schools to take over the administration of “weak” schools; and sending in hand-picked leaders and teachers to transfer “good” management practices. School-to-Work Transition Chinese students can choose to pursue vocational education around age 15. These programs are offered by vocational and technical schools at the upper secondary level; after completing upper secondary vocational education, students can go on to regional polytechnic colleges. These colleges are legally required to give admissions priority to graduates of vocational and technical schools, and provide on-the-job training as well as classroom-based learning. Students typically earn associate’s degrees from these institutions. This system was developed through a set of government initiatives from the late 1970s through the late 1990s, all of which sought to standardize and promote this type of learning as a support to China’s economy. The government provides subsidies to students at both the national and provincial levels to encourage students to pursue vocational education, and ensures that teachers are up-to-date with industry needs, skills and standards by requiring them to spend one month in industry each year, and also promoting the hiring of part-time teachers who also work in industry. Vocational education has, as a result of these reforms, become increasingly popular among Chinese students; between 1980-2001, the proportion of secondary vocational students increased from 19% to 45.3%. However, as access to university education is increasing, it appears these numbers are beginning to decline. Yet, vocational education remains a strong option: the Ministry of Education reports that 96.56% of graduates from vocational schools were able to find jobs, unlike university graduates who, due to their unprecedented high numbers in recent years, have greater difficulty. Various reports put the number for post-university employment anywhere between 70 and 94%. The Chinese education system also offers many pathways for lifelong learning, some formal and others informal, run by universities, individuals and for-profit organizations. These include sabbatical study, evening programs and classes, distance learning courses and self-study examinations. Some of these programs and courses lead to certificates and diplomas. Shanghai-China 43 Recent government initiatives have promoted the importance of adult education as China seeks to shake off its agrarian past and move forward as a science and technology leader. These initiatives are designed around preemployment training for adults who left school early as well as basic education for adults who never attended school or who failed to develop these skills in school. A major component is literacy programs for middle-aged adults. Between 1949 and 2000, the adult illiteracy rate decreased from 80% to just over 8%. Despite its successes, Shanghai is continuing to improve its vocational education system. In July 2014, six Chinese ministerial-level departments jointly produced a plan to reform vocational education over the next six years. According to the Ministry of Education website, the number of students at vocational high schools should reach 22.5 million with 13.9 million at vocational colleges by 2015. The plan calls for reforms in curriculum design and a regional coordination system to streamline school courses. According to the proposal, by 2020 a modern vocational education system should be fully in place with world-class standards that fit Chinese society and integrated with industrial development. Shanghai-China 44 Singapore Overview Singapore is an extraordinary success story. In less than 50 years, it has gone from an impoverished island with no natural resources and a population a majority of whom were illiterate to a country of 4.7 million people with living standards that match those of the most highly developed industrial nations. From the very beginning, Lee Kuan Yew, the world-famous prime minister who led Singapore to this achievement, understood that education would be an essential element in the creation of a single unified nation from a group of clashing ethnic and religious groups and in the development of the kind of worldclass workforce that would be required to fulfill the very ambitious economic goals he had set for Singapore. DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness 2 Rank 2014 INSEAD Global 7 Innovation Rank 2014 Population 5,567,301 Mandarin 35% English 23% Malay 14.1% Languages Hokkien 11.4% Cantonese 5.7% Teochew 4.9% Chinese 76.8% Malay 13.9% Ethnic Makeup Indian 7.9% Other 1.4% GDP (PPP) $339 billion GDP Per Capita $62,400 Agriculture: 0% Origin of GDP Industry: 29.4% Services: 70.6% Unemployment 1.90% Youth Unemployment 10.2% Among the reasons that Singapore was so successful in building a world-class education system from such an unpromising beginning in so short a time are the following: 1) Lee Kuan Yew selected many of the most capable people in Singapore to serve in government, giving him a first class team to set policy and to get it implemented (many of Singapore’s civil servants have been educated at the best universities in the world and are paid salaries comparable to what they could earn in the private sector); 2) he made sure that Source: CIA World Factbook (September 2014) government policy would be informed by World Bank Data (September 2014) intensive global benchmarking before policy and OECD Education at a Glance 2013 was made, so that Singaporean policy would reflect the most effective policies and practices in the world; and 3) he made sure that Singapore would take special care not only in the development of sound policy but paid equal attention to the careful, deliberate execution of those policies. Singapore follows through. There is perhaps one other factor of this sort that is important to mention. More than in most other countries, great care is taken, when new policies are considered, that they are designed in such a way that they complement the policies already in place, or that all related policies are changed, so that, in any case, policies and practices reinforce each other in their effects, creating powerful and highly effective systems. This is strikingly true in the arena of education. Because the improvement of education was, from the start, seen as a major strategy for accomplishing Singapore’s ambitious economic objectives, the country’s economic needs have played an important part in defining education policy. Education policy-making in Singapore has gone through three distinct phases. In the first, the focus was to produce basic literacy in a population many of whose members were previously illiterate. In this phase of education 45 development, Singapore was selling cheap labor on the world labor market, and it was very important that that labor be literate. Singapore’s Education System at a Glance In the second phase of the development of the Singaporean economic system, the government was seeking to shift its competitive advantage in the global labor market from being the low cost of its labor to the quality of its labor, so that it could compete for businesses that would not just locate in Singapore, but locate work in Singapore that would pay well. So the focus of education policy shifted from basic literacy to quality and to the retention of students in school. The focus of policy became how to get all students to global education standards. In this phase of the development of the education system, streaming was introduced at the end of the fourth grade, based on the performance of the students in their native languages, so that their teachers could pitch their instruction to the level of mastery of the students. At this time, however, after these second phase reforms had been implemented, the lowest track students in the streaming system were performing above the average performance of students in the industrialized nations, a remarkable achievement. The Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore was established to support the development of the different streams with high-quality and consistent educational materials. Much of this curriculum development was done with an eye to Singapore’s economic development needs. In the 1990s, the government implemented the “Thinking Schools, Learning Nation,” program, the third phase of development of Singapore’s education system. The government had recognized that global economic leadership required not just a highly educated and skilled workforce capable of doing high value added work but a workforce that would have the habits of mind, values, attitudes and skills needed to develop leading edge products and services. So they focused in this stage on improving even further the quality of their workforce and on curriculum and instruction that would support the creativity and capacity for innovation of their students. In 2004, the government developed the “Teach Less, Learn More” initiative, which moved instruction further away from the rote memorization and repetitive tasks on which it had originally focused to deeper conceptual understanding and problem-based learning. In 2008, the practice of grouping students into ability-based tracks was abandoned with students now sorted into three different “bands” in secondary school based on their ultimate educational goal. Although students take the majority of their classes within their bands, they can take classes in other bands depending on their aptitude. This new system has meant that 60% of all students take academic classes in upper secondary school. In 2009, art, music and physical education all gained a larger role in the overall curriculum. Recently, Singapore introduced the TEACH framework to further support teacher-led professional development and work-life balance, as well as earmarking funds for a more holistic approach to education in primary and secondary schools. Finally, the Ministry has rolled out new initiatives dedicated to providing financial aid for students in need, signaling a renewed commitment to educational equality. South Korea 46 PISA 2012 Mean Scores by Country for Reading, Mathematics, and Science Through all the phases of development of its education system, Singapore has put ever-greater emphasis on raising the quality of its teachers and its education leaders. Singapore’s teachers are drawn from the top third of their secondary school class. Beginning teachers are compensated at levels roughly equal to beginning engineers. They are trained in one of Singapore’s most prestigious higher education institutions. Singapore goes to considerable pains to identify the teachers with the greatest potential and then give them the training and job opportunities they need to climb up well defined career ladders that offer a variety of career paths to top teaching leadership positions in teaching, leadership and the ministry. Though Singapore now boasts one of the world’s strongest school systems as measured by international comparisons of academic achievement, this has not come at the expense of vocational and technical education, at which it also excels. Central government planners were well aware that they could not achieve the nation’s economic goals unless they could offer the world’s premier companies highly trained technicians who had globally competitive skills in everything from factory automation systems to computer systems management. In the 1980s Singapore invited several of the world’s most advanced industrial nations to establish, at their own expense, specialized industrial training schools at the upper secondary level in that country. Some of these schools created programs that have since been consolidated under the aegis of the Nanyang Polytechnic, which has since become the hub of Singapore’s world-class technical education and training program. Today, Singapore is home to one of the world’s largest and busiest ports. It is also one of the world’s major telecommunications hubs and a leader in consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, financial services and information technology. It is no accident that Singapore’s educational institutions, from its schools, to its polytechnics, to its universities, are among the most admired in the world. Once this tiny country had succeeded in raising its literacy levels to the point at which they made its relatively low cost labor competitive on the world market for low skill, low cost labor, it kept ratcheting up the skills of its labor force so that its people could add more and more value to the products and services it produced, resulting in a steadily rising standard of living for its people. The result is a population that is among the most technically competent in the world. Its challenge now, as it knows, is to make sure that it is also among the most creative and innovative in the world. Teacher and Principal Quality Singapore recruits its teachers from the top third of high school graduates. Each year, Singapore calculates the number of teachers it will need, and opens only that many spots in the training programs. On average, only one out of eight applicants for admission to their teacher education programs is accepted, and that only after a grueling application process. Those who are accepted have typically not only taken Singapore’s A-level exams (the most challenging of all the exams available to Singapore students) but will have scored at least in the middle of the score range, a very high level of accomplishment. The many other steps in the application process include tough panel interviews that focus on the personal qualities that make for a good teacher, as well as intensive reviews of their academic record and their contributions to their school and community. Teaching is a highly-respected profession in Singapore, not simply because it is part of the Confucian culture to value teachers, but because everyone knows how hard it is to become a teacher and everyone also knows that Singapore’s teachers have year in and year out produced students who are among the world’s highest achievers. While teachers’ base salaries are not particularly high compared to many other top-performing countries, they are high enough to make compensation an unimportant consideration for students weighing teaching against other professions as they make their career choices. Singapore also has a system of generous bonuses that boost teachers’ salaries by tens of thousands over the course of their South Korea 47 careers. The bonuses are based on Singapore’s rather sophisticated teacher appraisal system in which teachers are evaluated annually in 16 areas, including in the contributions they make to the school and community. The quality of Singapore school leaders is a function of the high standards that applicants must meet to become a teacher, because teachers constitute the sole pool from which school leaders are selected, as well as the very high quality of the training and support that individuals selected for promotion up the leadership career ladder receive from the National Institute of Education. Recruitment and Compensation Teachers’ salaries in Singapore are largely commensurate with other professions. The maximum salary for a lower secondary teacher is twice the GDP per capita, indicating that teacher compensation is generally quite strong. The Ministry of Education monitors teacher salaries in relation to other professional salaries, and adjusts them accordingly to ensure that they are competitive. Successful teachers have the opportunity to earn retention bonuses, which can range from $10,000 – $36,000 every three to five years, and performance bonuses, which can be up to 30% of their base salary. Eligibility for these bonuses is determined through rigorous annual evaluations that also serve as a basis for coaching and mentoring between teachers. Including bonuses, the modal annual salary for teachers aged 25-29 was $43,563 in 2009, and the maximum salary was $77,693. This compares favorably to the OECD averages of $41,701 for a mid-career upper secondary teacher and a $51,317 maximum salary. Teachers’ compensation depends in part on where they are on the various career ladders (see below) available to them. Promotion up these career ladders depends entirely on demonstrated performance and demonstrated potential. All teachers are trained at the National Institute of Education (NIE), which offers both bachelors and post-graduate degrees. Eighty percent of accepted applicants have already completed a bachelor’s degree in the subject they are going to teach before entering a teacher education program. During their training, teacher candidates receive a monthly stipend equivalent to 60% of a starting teacher salary, and their tuition is covered by the Ministry of Education. Once they have completed training, teachers must commit to three full years on the job. Initial Education and Training There is only one teacher training institution in Singapore – the National Institute of Education (NIE). The NIE is located in the Nanyang Technological University, one of the most prestigious institutions in the hierarchy of Singapore’s institutions of higher education. Prospective teachers who already hold a bachelor’s degree in an appr0oved subject area must complete one of the teacher education programs at NIE, as well as pass or waive out of an Entrance Proficiency Test. There are different programs for different teaching candidates, depending on the candidate’s level of education when entering the program. These include the Diploma in Education, the Postgraduate Diploma in Education and the Bachelor of Arts/Science (Education), and range from two to four years. Teachers with other credentials, such as A-levels (upper secondary leaving exams) or polytechnical degrees, must complete an NIE degree program. The programs at NIE are focused on pedagogy and connections between educational subjects, rather than on advanced academic training within a specific subject. Which is to say that one cannot become a teacher in Singapore without mastery of the subject one is going to teach at a high level, as well as at least a year of challenging instruction in the craft of teaching. This curriculum is constantly updated to reflect the changing needs of Singapore’s education system. Career Ladders There are three directions a teaching career can take in Singapore: the teaching track, the leadership track and the specialist track. In the teaching track, teachers work their way up to becoming Principal Master Teachers. In the leadership track, teachers can be promoted from a leadership position within the school all the way up to the position of Director-General of Education. In the specialist track, teachers are focused on research and teaching policy, with the highest-level position being Chief Specialist. There are 13 levels within each track. The first three levels are considered “general”; the next two stages are “senior” and then the top eight stages are “super senior”. At each level, South Korea 48 there are salary increases and additional training and mentorship opportunities. For the first three years of teaching, all teachers receive annual raises. After that, raises are only available as part of promotion along the career track. (Annual performance bonuses are available for between 10-30 percent of teachers’ salary.) Teachers do not automatically get promoted to the next level. Teachers’ performance on the Educational Performance Management System (EPMS) determines when they are eligible for advancement up the career ladder. The EPMS includes an annual evaluation in three areas: Professional Practice, Leadership Management and Personal Effectiveness. Teachers are expected to set and meet personal goals for their work, and demonstrate improvements in a rubric of competencies during observations of their teaching. The EPMS is also used to determine teachers’ fit for the career pathways. All teachers are observed for three years in order to determine which career path would best suit them. However, after teachers are assigned a career path, they may make a lateral move if they feel the pathway does not suit them. Talent and potential for leadership is identified early, and these teachers are then groomed for future leadership roles. Singaporean schools operate under the belief that poor leadership is a major reason for school failure, and by choosing talented individuals early in their careers and investing in them heavily, schools can avoid this problem. This training often involves promotion to department head at a young age, recruitment to several academic and administrative committees, stints at the Ministry of Education and a six-month executive leadership course at NIE. Professional Development Teachers have access to several types of professional development opportunities. They can improve their practice through courses at the National Institute of Education (NIE) or at the Teachers’ Network, which is maintained by the Ministry of Education and is an organization dedicated to providing conferences, forums and seminars for teachers, or study leave for those wanting to pursue degree programs. These programs range from in-service training to online classes on a variety of subjects related to teaching. The Ministry and NIE also offer scholarship opportunities for teachers seeking MA and PhD degrees in Singapore or abroad, either full- or part-time. Teachers can participate in as many as 100 hours of professional development per year. Instructional Systems System Design As of 2003, Singapore students are required to participate in six years of compulsory education. Although this is the least amount of required schooling in any of the top-performing countries, students in Singapore almost universally choose to remain in school for at least another four years beyond primary school. Ninety-nine percent of students also attend preschool for one to three years. The education system is comprised of six years of primary school, four of secondary school (which most other countries call lower secondary school and in Singapore ends at age 16), and one to three years of post-secondary school (which most other countries call upper secondary school), at which point students are between the ages of 17 and 19 and can continue on to higher education either in universities or in vocational education institutes. After leaving primary school, students have many options. They are assigned to bands based on their performance on the Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE). University-bound students can enter an integrated program which combines secondary school (ages 13-16) with junior college (16-18), or a secondary express course (ages 13-16). Both of these pathways lead to General Certificate of Education (GCE) O-levels and A-levels; the former is taken at age 16 at the end of secondary school, and the latter at age 18, at the end of junior college. Alternately, students can enter the secondary normal academic course, which leads either to the GCE O-level examinations or GCE N-level examinations, depending on student preference. The examinations differ by level of difficulty, though students who choose to take the N-level exams can study for an additional year and then take O-levels. Students who pass the GCE O-levels can go on to junior college and the A-level examinations, or on to a Polytechnic for vocational training. South Korea 49 Students who choose not to enter an integrated course, a secondary express course or a normal academic course have the option of taking a normal technical course, which also leads to the GCE-N level. Or, students can choose to enter a technical or vocational school at the age of 13, and from there go on to a higher institute of technical education at the age of 16. The express, normal academic and normal technical courses differ from traditional tracking in that all students study the same subjects; the differentiation is in level of complexity of the materials and projects rather than content areas. Major differences in the content studied occur at the post-secondary level (ages 16-18). Approximately 60% of Singaporean students enter the “express,” or pre-university track after primary school. Nearly all of the remaining students enter either the normal academic or normal technical tracks, with very few choosing a wholly vocational track or leaving school altogether. Following secondary school, 30% of students enter junior colleges, 40% enter polytechnics, and 20% enter Institutes of Technical Education. All of these options lead to higher education, ranging from university to higher vocational and technical education. In sum, Singapore makes available a wide variety of options, both academic and technical, to its students, all with the goal of helping students reach their full potential at school and eventually in the workplace. This has paid off in the form of an upper secondary completion rate of more than 98%. Curriculum The Singapore Ministry of Education oversees the development of the national curriculum, which includes “Desired Outcomes of Education.” The desired outcomes are student excellence in life skills, knowledge skills and subject discipline knowledge organized into eight core skills and values: character development, self management skills, social and cooperative skills, literacy and numeracy, communication skills, information skills, thinking skills and creativity and knowledge application skills. The primary school curriculum is focused on ensuring that students have a good grasp of English language, mother tongue language (instruction in mother tongue language is available for Chinese, Malay and Tamil speaking students), and mathematics. There are also several additional curriculum elements, including civics and moral education, pastoral care and career guidance, national education, physical education and project work. Science and social studies are incorporated in later phases of primary education. Until 2005, students in primary school were divided into three separate ability groups. Though they were taught the same subjects, the curriculum involved different levels of complexity based on student ability. Now, students are placed into subject-based bands, rather than comprehensive ability-based groups, so they can mix and match subject ability levels based on their strengths and educational needs. This continues through secondary school. Although students are sorted into bands beginning in secondary school, there is a national curriculum for students aged 12-16 that is essentially the same across the bands, with students in the more difficult tracks expected to perform at a higher level of competence. Core subjects at this phase include English; mother tongue language; mathematics; science; literature; history; geography; arts, crafts and design; and technology and home economics. Students are also required to continue their education in several non-exam subjects: civics and moral education, physical education, music and assembly. In upper secondary school, students spend a minimum of eight hours a week on their “A” level subjects (these subjects are chosen by each student) and an additional four hours a week on civics and moral education, assembly and physical education. University-bound students also complete interdisciplinary project work intended to promote collaborative problem solving, literacy and communication and creative thinking skills. The Ministry of Education has a great deal of control over how the curriculum is implemented. As it promoted a shift from instruction based on teacher lectures and student memorization to one that emphasizes student engagement and creativity, ministry officials met regularly with school leaders and developed an extensive series of professional development opportunities for teachers as they rolled out the new system. However, in recent years, the ministry has sought to loosen their control over the curriculum, encouraging schools to consider the curriculum as a framework, and to adapt and work within the framework to meet the needs of their students. South Korea 50 Instruction Singapore is particularly well known for its math instruction. “Singapore Math” is currently being exported to other countries, including the US. Singapore’s approach to math instruction was developed in the 1980s, and is focused on mastery of central mathematical concepts. The role of the teacher is to instill “math sense” in students, so they will know how to approach unfamiliar mathematical problems without being drilled on problems first. Teachers rely on visual aids, and take the approach that there is no one right approach to solve a problem. As a result, Singaporeans leaving the sixth grade have approximately the same math skills as US students leaving the eighth grade, and have already been exposed to basic concepts in algebra and geometry. All Singaporean teachers receive training in this unique math curriculum. Instruction in science and the humanities draws on the lessons from the Singapore math curriculum. Learning is viewed as a form of inquiry, and teachers promote the idea that there is no one right answer, particularly in more creative disciplines like the humanities. Students are encouraged to view academic subjects as useful outside of school, and so teachers place emphasis on how scientific concepts affect everyday life. Over the past decade, Singapore has trained increasing numbers of teachers. The Ministry has announced that rather than use the excess teaching force to reduce class size across the board, it will implement a needs-based system for teacher resourcing. In other words, more teachers will be moved to programs for slower learners. As of 2014, the ratio is one teacher for every 18 students in primary schools and one teacher for every 14 students in secondary schools, which is comparable to the OECD average. Assessment Teachers perform continuous assessment of their students at all levels of education. On a day-to-day basis, this assessment is informal and based on student work in and out of the classroom. At the end of primary school (age 12), all students take the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). Schools place students into separate exam levels based on the subjects they took in years five and six of primary school. Their exam scores help students determine which band they will join in lower secondary education, as well as which school they will attend. Students can request that their examination scores are sent to up to six lower secondary schools, which choose their students based on their PSLE rankings. The Ministry of Education helps to place students who are not accepted into their schools of choice. The bands are categorized as special, express, normal technical or normal academic. The Ministry also allows some schools to practice Direct School Admission, admitting students based on other achievements before the PSLE results are released, to provide greater diversity in student talents and interests. Upper secondary education, known in Singapore as post-secondary education, begins at age 16 following four years of lower secondary school. Students are admitted to post-secondary schools based on their Cambridge GCE “O” level exam results, or “N” level results if they are in the “normal” band. Students with the requisite exam results may choose between three different types of schools: junior colleges, centralized institutes and polytechnics. The first two types of schools offer pre-university education; junior colleges provide a two-year course of study leading to the Cambridge General Certificate of Advanced Level (GCE “A” level), while centralized institutes require students to attend for three years before taking the GCE “A” level exams. Polytechnics offer three-year occupational training leading to a diploma. Gateways Students sit for national examinations at the end of primary, secondary and post-secondary school. These exams serve as gateways to lower secondary, higher secondary and tertiary education. The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) assesses suitability for secondary school and sorts students into the appropriate secondary school course of study. The GCE “O” and “N” levels determine which type of post-secondary education a student may attend, and the GCE “A” levels determine a student’s path in higher education. South Korea 51 System and School Organization Education  Finance   Annual Expenditure per Student as Percent of GDP per capita All children in Singapore are entitled to free state education, and all schools receive some level of public funding. Funding is administered directly by the central government. Schools are classified as either “government” or “government-aided;” government schools are fully funded while the aided schools – typically religious –only receive partial government funding, though this can be up to 90% of their total revenue. Both of these categories can have schools within them that are designated“independent” or “autonomous,” and these sub-categories are allotted additional government funding to expand their resources and curricula. The Singapore government is committed to equity and meritocracy in the school system, and all schools receive per-capita base funding from the Ministry of Education. The vast majority (76% of primary and 77% of secondary) of publicly-funded schools are government schools, and these serve the 2010, Source: World Bank majority of Singapore’s student population. Government-aided schools comprise the remainder of non-private primary schools and all but seven of the remaining secondary schools. Although government-aided schools charge tuition to students, they are open-access to all students due to multiple government subsidy schemes. These schemes entitle students from low- and middle-income families to have part or all of their school fees paid. The seven independent/specialized secondary schools receive an additional allocation per student per year (in 2011, this was $150, though the Ministry intends to increase it to $300), which leads to them having improved resources. Admission to these schools is based on merit, and students who are admitted are allowed to take part in the government’s subsidy schemes. Another way in which the Singaporean government is committed to school resource equity is the PRIME program, under which the Ministry is rebuilding every school built before 1997 to incorporate new, up-to-date resources like computer labs, media resource libraries, and health and fitness rooms. There are also private schools in Singapore, though they serve only a small portion of the population. While they receive no government funding, these schools must adhere to the same curricula and assessments as governmentfunded schools. School Management and Organization The Ministry of Education determines all national education goals and curriculum guidelines, and is responsible for hiring teachers directly from the National Institute of Education. Schools are grouped into geographic clusters intended to provide local support for the Ministry’s education policies and initiatives. These clusters can help determine how the curriculum will be implemented, and can choose teaching materials, though the Ministry makes recommendations. The cluster superintendents, who are successful former principals, are responsible for providing leadership to principals, and to facilitate the sharing of resources and best practices between cluster schools. Schools set their own goals and give their own annual assessment, with an external assessment occurring every six years. Particularly effective teachers and administrators are identified in these assessments and are offered the chance to move into leadership roles. Within schools, principals are responsible for staff development, instructional guidelines and resource management. Principals are also responsible for completing teacher evaluations which can lead to bonuses. Within each cluster, certain schools are designated as “autonomous.” These schools are typically the top-performing government schools, and due to their success, they are allowed to take greater responsibility for their governance. South Korea 52 Most notably, autonomous schools are allowed to choose some of their staff and to set their own admissions policies. Accountability and Incentive Systems The Ministry of Education sets annual goals for schools, and teachers and principals. Teacher performance is appraised annually in an Enhanced Performance Management System. Teachers are evaluated based on 16 different competencies, including their work in the classroom and their interaction with the greater school community. Rewards take several forms, including honors and salary bonuses. The Ministry also selects teachers for awards and recognition at the national level. Students are also encouraged to work hard through the EduSave incentive system, which rewards students for strong performance in both academic and non-academic work. The government has a $4 billion fund dedicated to these grants, and typically students in the top 10% of their class can expect small grants of about $400-$650. Larger grants are available through other EduSave awards. Parent and Community Participation The Ministry of Education actively encourages parents to participate in public education initiatives in conjunction with schools. Because education is highly valued in Singapore, parents are understandably concerned with student performance. All Singapore primary schools provide parents with written reports and require parents to meet with teachers at key junctures in their child’s primary education. Increasingly, schools are also holding briefing meetings for parents about new curriculum developments, and encouraging parents to participate in fundraising and social activities for their children’s schools, and offering homework help to their children. In addition to participating at their children’s schools, many parents also encourage their children to attend tutoring schools outside of their normal school day. Education For All Student  Support  Systems   Prior to independence, only the children of the colonial elite were guaranteed quality education in Singapore. Even after a comprehensive system of compulsory education was created, there remained a significant achievement gap among students of different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Chinese students tended to be top-performers, while Malay and Tamil students lagged behind. The series of reforms through the 1970s and 80s did a lot to reduce dropout rates and promote equity, and the recent switch to ability-based subject bands rather than tracks has quieted critics who maintain that tracking promotes disparity. Bands are much less rigid than tracks; if a student is able to perform at a higher level, they can easily move into a higher band for one or more of their classes. However, there is still a large gap between Singapore’s top-performing students and its lowest-performing students – a gap that was made apparent in the most recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) results. Educators hope to alleviate this gap through early diagnosis and intervention. Students are screened at the beginning of first grade for reading aptitude, and students who are considered to need extra help (approximately 12-14%) are taught in small learning support programs to ensure that they keep pace with their classmates. In these programs, teachers work with groups of six to eight students for thirty minutes a day in order to keep them up to speed with their classmates. The government funds preschools for low-income students who would otherwise not be able to attend. Students are also not hampered by previous academic performance if they show improvement. When Singapore switched from a tracking to a banding system in the 1990s, lower secondary school became much more flexible. Students can move between bands, or take courses in other bands, if necessary. South Korea 53 The Singapore government believes that environmental conditions, such as a single-parent household, can affect a student’s performance. To that end, the government has instituted local community councils responsible for identifying families in need and for providing aid and support in multiple forms. Each ethnic group also has a similar committee in local communities. The government also provides monetary assistance to low-income families. In February 2014, Singapore announced that it would provide grants to low- and middle-income families to defray the costs of pre-primary childcare and higher education. Families who earn up to $2,374 (US dollars) a month now only pay $2.37 a month for pre-primary childcare, down from a maximum cost of $59. For families who earn $3,798 a month, the cost decreases from $103 to $67. The government offers grants for all students to attend college; these grants increase substantially for lower-income students. The Ministry of Education and the National Council of Social Services also fund special education (SPED) schools. These schools are typically structured around the type of disability they cater to, such as students with sight or hearing impairment or students with learning or developmental disabilities, and have long waiting lists for admission. Special needs education is available through the post-secondary level, where students with intellectual disabilities are prepared for the workforce through special training programs. Whenever possible, the government encourages students to join the mainstream educational system either initially or after having met certain benchmarks in special education. To help facilitate this “mainstreaming,” Special Needs Officers are placed in mainstream schools to help students with conditions such as dyslexia or high-functioning autism. The ministry also announced that in the coming years, they hope to have 10% of all primary and secondary school teachers trained in special education, in order to provide a strong support system for these students in mainstream schools. Singapore does not require students with special needs who are unable to attend a mainstream school to complete compulsory education. The Singapore government estimates the special needs population who cannot or do not attend school to be just 0.01% of the population. Low-Performing Schools More than 80% of the Singapore population lives in government-built, self-owned housing in communities that represent a deliberate mix of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. These communities are in turn reflected in the schools. Because of the highly heterogeneous nature of Singapore’s public schools, there is relatively little variance in school performance. However, inside schools, there is a fair amount of student variance. PISA  2012:  Variation  in  Mathematics  Performance   Explained  by  Socioeconomic  Background   Although some parents have expressed concern that neighborhood schools are inadequate compared to elite or private schools and particularly that students in the “normal” course are denied resources in these schools, the Ministry contends that in most schools, principals select the most experienced teachers to teach the “normal” courses and that these students are given access to the same resources – overseas learning trips and co-curricular activities – as students in the express and special courses. Geographic school clusters, which were introduced in the 1990s to better manage school resources, are another way that the Ministry seeks to manage school disparity. Cluster superintendents – successful former principals – are responsible for sharing resources between the schools in their clusters, and ensuring that all staff have access to the best practices and materials of the top performing schools within the cluster. The Programme for Rebuilding and Improving Existing Schools is also seeking to address school disparity by upgrading or rebuilding all schools built before 1997. The rebuilding will outfit schools with computer labs, fitness centers, media resource libraries and expanded classrooms. South Korea 54 School-to-Work Transition Singapore values vocational and technical skills highly and sees them as crucial to the country’s economic development. This was not always the case, however. Prior to the early 1990s, vocational education was viewed as a “last resort” for students who could not achieve in academic settings, and Singapore’s five polytechnics, founded in the 1960s, were not considered particularly desirable educational options. In 1992, the government created the Institute for Technical Education (ITE), which was intended to revolutionize vocational education and be a worldclass example of how vocational and technological skills could be translated to a knowledge-based economy. The result was a state-of-the-art set of campuses devoted to technology and closely tied to international corporations. Vocational education was rebranded as “hands-on, minds-on, hearts-on” education to combat the perception that these schools were for low achievers. Since 1995, enrollment in vocational education has doubled, and now makes up 65% of the cohort who go on to post-secondary education (ages 16-18), with 25% accepted into the ITE and another 40% attending polytechnics. The ITE is recognized as producing highly skilled graduates; they are able to offer such a high level of learning because students entering them have received a strong academic foundation in literacy, problem-solving, math and science. Salaries for ITE graduates, who receive a National ITE Certificate (Nitec), have also become quite high in recent years. As of 2014, 87% of ITE graduates are hired in their fields within six months of graduation, leading more students to see vocational education as a strong choice for future success. Polytechnics now offer nearly 150 diploma programs, and, like the ITE, have worked to remain closely connected with industry, growing and changing alongside Singapore’s economy. Students receive a combination of experiential and classroom-based learning. Many choose to continue into a job in their field after receiving the Nitec qualification, although in recent years, as many as 40% of graduates of post-secondary vocational education go on to pursue a university degree, and are often able to complete a bachelor’s degree in two years because they are able to transfer credits, depending on their focus during post-secondary education. Vocational education can often continue far beyond post-secondary or higher education. Lifelong learning is considered to be an important part of the education system in Singapore, and as having a large impact on Singapore’s role in the global economy. Lifelong learning opportunities are diverse and the Workforce Development Agency encourages professional development in all sectors of the economy. Recently, the Singaporean government has sought to further strengthen its vocational education programs. Recognizing that the demands for state-of-the-art skills and technological proficiency will continue to rise as the workforce becomes more high-tech and globalized, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong appointed an Applied Study in Polytechnics and ITE Review (ASPIRE) Committee in November 2013. The Prime Minister charged the ASPIRE Committee with reviewing the current ITE system and recommending changes in order to strengthen the alignment between ITE offerings and industry needs and better serve an increasingly diverse student body. In order to develop a set of recommendations for reform, the Committee conducted focus groups and interviews with over 17,000 students, 3,000 parents, and 400 school staff, as well as benchmarking visits to Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Australia. The ASPIRE Committee released its recommendations in August of 2014. These recommendations included: coordinating and improving education and career guidance systems, strengthening workplace partnerships, articulating specific skill frameworks and career pathways, and expanding apprenticeship and continuing education opportunities. The Singaporean Government has accepted all ten recommendations, and is currently putting together an action plan to address each of them. Adults who did not pursue post-secondary education upon graduation from secondary school are encouraged to earn a degree or a diploma later in their careers. The Singapore government has recently instituted several changes in part-time degree and diploma programs at vocational schools and universities in order to make it easier for adults who are working full-time to go back to school. The programs have been revised to be more “compact and modular,” and many have seen drastic reductions in course hours (sometimes as much as 50%). Many, too, now accept non-academic credentials such as Workforce Skills Qualifications and Literacy and Numeracy qualifications when admitting applicants. The government has also recently raised the level of tuition subsidies for adult students South Korea 55 South Korea Overview DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS In the 2009 PISA assessments, South Korea ranked second in reading, fourth in mathematics and sixth in science. This is a remarkable achievement. South Korea spends not much more than half what the United States spends on education as a proportion of gross national product. Mathematics and science were never terribly important in Korean culture through its long history. During much of that history, education was restricted to a small elite. During the almost 50 years of the Japanese occupation, there was a pretty good education system in Korea, but, with few exceptions, only the Japanese were allowed to teach and only the Japanese were allowed to attend the secondary schools and higher education institutions. The Koreans had been shut out of their own education system. So, when the Japanese left at the end of the war, the Koreans had no teachers and no one with the level of education required to become teachers. When the Japanese went home, 78% of the Korean population was illiterate. But the Koreans did the best they could to jump start their education system, only to see the emerging system devastated by the war between North and South Korea in the early 1950s. In these circumstances, it should surprise no one that, as recently as 1970, South Korea’s annual per capita income was only about $200. From these inauspicious beginnings only a few decades ago, South Korea now fields one of the most highly educated and skilled workforces in the world, a workforce that now staffs at every level some of the world’s leading consumer electronics companies, automobile manufacturers and builders of giant supertankers and container ships. The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness 26 Rank 2014 INSEAD Global 16 Innovation Rank 2014 Population 49,039,986 Korean Languages English Ethnic Makeup Korean, more than 99% GDP (PPP) $1.666 trillion GDP Per Capita $33,200 Agriculture: 2.6% Origin of GDP Industry: 39.2% Services: 58.2% Unemployment 3.20% Youth Unemployment 8.9% Secondary School Completion 94.91% Adults with Tertiary Education 42% Source: CIA World Factbook (September 2014) World Bank Data (September 2014) and OECD Education at a Glance 2014 PISA 2012 Mean Scores by Country for Reading, Mathematics, and Science No doubt South Korea’s brand of Confucianism, with its values of hard work, reverence for education, frugality and strong family structure helped, but those values had been part of the culture for a couple of millennia and cannot by themselves explain what happened. Clark Sorensen describes the construction of the modern Korean education system as part of the Korean “national project,” by which he appears to mean that it was successful less because of the particular features of the system than because of the sheer determination of the Koreans to build a world class country, and the commitment of every citizen to do his or her part in the grand design. Education was, in the minds of the Korean people, a central part of that grand design from the start. South Korea 56 South Korea’s Education System at a Glance The Koreans saw the Japanese decision to prevent the Koreans from acquiring education and the skills they needed to be independent as a key feature of the colonial occupation strategy, and the independence movement that started in 1919 made the construction of a strong Korean education system a key part of the Korean strategy for rebuilding their country. When the Koreans were finally in a position to build their own education system, they were determined to avoid any features that replicated the multi-tiered Japanese system (in which the Koreans had been confined to the bottom tier). They opted instead for an uncompromisingly egalitarian system that would be as un-tracked as possible, even though that was at odds with the Confucian structure of inherited status and separate educations for students from each rung of the status hierarchy. Following the war in Korea, the government took control of education from local school boards and concentrated it in the ministry of education, where it has been ever since. The Basic Education Law, passed in 1949, still provides the core structure of the system. Six years of free compulsory education, beginning at age six, is followed by three years of middle school, followed by three years of high school, followed by four years of college. This system, at least through high school, was in place by 1951. Widespread illiteracy was eliminated by the mid-60s. Ninety percent of the elementary school cohort was in school by the same time. The same was true for middle schools by 1979. Some 98% of the cohort now completes upper secondary education—the highest rate in the OECD— and 63% of 25-34 year-olds now complete tertiary education, again the highest rate among all the OECD countries, and that rate continues to grow. Only five countries in the world have a higher proportion of the world’s total number of adults with a tertiary education, and most are far larger than South Korea. So, in a few short decades, South Korea has managed to go from massive illiteracy to topping the global charts in both quantity of education and quality of education This was not easy to do. Before the economy started generating enough money to train and hire lots of teachers, South Korean class size often topped 100, facilities were primitive and schools often ran two or three shifts. The system became highly test-driven. The middle school entrance exams were abolished in 1969, but the high school entrance exams and the college entrance exams remain. In South Korea, virtually every form of opportunity, from marriage prospects to job prospects, depends on which high school you got into and which college you went to. Employees are not even considered for management positions unless they have college degrees, and promotion in the management ranks depends more on which college you went to than on your business experience. The social prestige of college graduates is very much a function of the ranking of the college attended. Parents’ status in the society depends importantly on which high schools and colleges their children are able to get into. Children’s failure to achieve high education goals reflects not just on the child, but on their parents as well. And, not least, in this society, children are obligated by law and custom to provide for their parents in their old age, and so, when parents look at their children, they are also looking at their retirement fund, and the ability of that retirement fund to take care of them in their old age depends more than in any other country on success on their high school and South Korea 57 college entrance exams. For all these reasons, parents work very hard to assure their children’s success in school and children work hard in school to please their parents. Much of what has just been said is true of other “chopstick” cultures, too. But they have particular bite in South Korea. The demand for education is stronger. The pressure on students to perform is greater. The number of hours spent by students studying every day and every week is longer (longer, in fact, than in any other OECD country). It is said that students who do not meet parents’ expectations in school are often severely punished. One survey showed that three-quarters of middle and high school students consider running away from home or committing suicide because of the pressure to perform at high levels in school. All these factors combine to produce a drive for students to achieve (on their exams) and for the adults in their lives to help then in that drive that may be unparalleled in the world. Not only do students study longer than students anywhere else, but parents are willing to pay more for the education of their students than parents anywhere else. Though the South Korean government’s support for education is about average, parents pay enough in school fees to bring the total school spending up to 15% of gross national product, and that is without counting the enormous sums that parents also spend on private tutoring. Some observers believe that this willingness of Koreans to dig very deeply into their pockets for the education of their children accounts in large measure for the remarkable rise of the South Korean economy. So both Korean students and parents make a maximum effort. One could argue that that fact alone might be enough to account for South Korea’s position on the PISA rankings. And it must certainly claim a lot of the credit. But it is not alone on a list of plausible explanations of South Korea’s success. Teacher quality leads that list. In South Korea, it is the Ministry that is responsible for hiring school teachers. In response to severe secondary school teacher shortages in the 1960s and 1970s, South Korea built a strong, highly qualified teaching force. Today, teaching is the most popular career choice among young South Koreans, due to a combination of high social status, job stability and high pay. Only two out of 32 countries surveyed by the OECD, for example, pay higher salaries to their lower secondary teachers than South Korea. The result is that just 5% of applicants are accepted into elementary school teacher training programs, and the teacher attrition rate is very low, only a little over 1% per year. The proportion of all South Korean teachers that are fully certified and hold bachelors degrees is among the highest in the world. Through the history of the PISA assessments, South Korea has scored ever higher in reading, reaching the top of the league tables in the 2009 assessments, and held fairly steady in mathematics, scoring near but not at the top. But its rank in science has fallen from the top of the league tables in the 2000 assessments to sixth place in the 2009 rankings. This is probably because instructional time for science was reduced, science subjects became optional in school, the university entrance examinations no longer require students to take exams in science and the science and technology professions have become less attractive to Korean students. The de-emphasis on science and the increased emphasis on reading are consistent with the call in the 1997 report of the President’s Commission on Education Reform, which stated that “Korean education, having registered a marked growth in quantitative terms in the era of industrialization, will no longer be appropriate in the era of information technology and globalization. It will not able to produce persons who possess high levels of creativity and moral sensitivity, which are required to sharpen the nation’s competitive edge in the coming era.” The quote summarizes a half century of education reform in Korea. At the beginning, when South Korea was focused on increasing the proportion of the population that was literate and the proportion of elementary school aged children attending school, the emphasis was in fact on the quantity of education provided. The strategy the government employed to reach its targets was the Low Cost Approach, which employed very large class sizes, double and even triple shift classrooms and very low teachers’ salaries. This strategy enabled the country to produce a very rapid decline in illiteracy and an equally rapid increase in the proportion of school-age children in compulsory school in the 1950s. South Korea 58 Similar strategies were used to expand enrollments in lower secondary education in the 1960s, upper secondary education in the 1970s and tertiary education in the 1980s. These developments in academic education were matched by close attention to increasing enrollments in vocational and technical education. This trajectory mapped, by design, rather nicely onto the progression in the nation’s economy from light manufacturing, to capital-intensive heavy industries, to advanced manufacturing and related high-technology industries requiring a very highly skilled workforce. In the 1960s and 70s, South Korea discovered that its hyper-meritocratic system of education and personal advancement, all keyed to its examination system, was narrowing the scope of elementary school education in destructive ways and the press on the part of middle and upper income parents to seek advantages for their children by enrolling them in the most successful schools was resulting in a system increasingly unfair to students whose parents could not afford homes in the right enrollment areas and who lacked the political clout of those who were better off. So they eliminated the middle school entrance examination and created a system for the more heavily populated areas in which students were assigned to schools by a lottery and in which officials assigned students to schools in order to achieve a better socio-economic mix than the one that had developed prior to these changes in policy. It also became clear that parents with more money were using that money to buy additional out-of-school services from the teachers in the regular schools for their children and also hiring university students to tutor their school-age children. Laws were passed prohibiting these practices, but these laws have proven difficult to enforce. In 2008, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) introduced a new set of policy initiatives, aimed at closing the gap in student achievement between urban and rural schools and advantaged and disadvantaged students. Among the proposed reforms were an increase in aid for school support fees for all middle school students, as well as subsidies for computer and internet fees for all disadvantaged students; the provision of meals to lowincome and rural students; the establishment of K-2 schools in rural areas in order to reduce long commutes, making it easier for children to attend school; the establishment of programs aimed at helping rural, low-income, and at-risk students adjust to school and remain in school, and the expansion of digital services to schools, including providing students with remote access to textbooks. In 2000, the Seventh National Curriculum was released, which included a philosophical shift to learning that supports creativity. In addition, there is a big emphasis on technology-based learning and a loosening of the strict control MEST had traditionally had over schools. In the 2011 Major Policies and Plans document, MEST outlined its major reform goals: strengthening and supporting school autonomy, expanding the recruitment of principals in order to hire more competent leaders, boosting creative learning opportunities, and encouraging teachers to undergo professional development so that they may also function as career counselors for students. Teacher and Principal Quality Teaching  is  a  highly  respected  profession  in  South  Korea,  and  among  the  most  popular   career  choices  for  young  South  Koreans.  This  is  largely  due  to  competitive  pay,  job  stability,   and  good  working  conditions  –  for  example,  there  is  a  high  degree  of  collaboration  among   teachers.  It  is,  however  highly  regulated  with  even  part-­‐time  lecturers  required  to  hold  a   teaching  certificate,  and  therefore  not  an  option  for  a  majority  of  people.  However,  in   recent  years  there  has  been  an  undersupply  of  elementary  school  teachers  and  an   oversupply  of  secondary  school  teachers.    This  is  because  elementary  teachers  must  attend   one  of  13  institutions  to  become  qualified  whereas  secondary  school  teachers  have   multiple  pathways  into  teaching  and  often  attend  comprehensive  universities.  Teachers  are   paid  well  in  South  Korea.  Lower  secondary  teachers  can  expect  a  mid-­‐career  salary  of   $52,699,  much  higher  than  the  OECD  average  of  $41,701.   South Korea 59 Recruitment and Compensation Teacher education takes place at several types of institutions in South Korea. These include dedicated teachers colleges (there are 11 of these in the country), the departments of education at colleges and universities, and short, non-degree teacher training programs also housed in colleges and universities. Admission to any of these programs is based on a candidate’s graduation from a general, academic high school and his/her score on the College Scholastic Ability Test, the examination that all high school students hoping to continue on to higher education must take. The vast majority of elementary school teachers are educated at the teacher colleges, and therefore the number of candidates and graduates is regulated to more or less meet the schools’ needs, although there has been a shortage of elementary school teachers in recent years after a lowering of the retirement age caused more than 20,000 teachers to retire. Secondary school teaching candidates are not as easily regulated because there are multiple pathways to certification, and because teaching is a high-status, well-paid job in Korea, there are many more qualified teacher candidates produced each year than are needed by the schools. As a result, only 30% of secondary school teaching candidates are able to find jobs – an improvement over a 16.5% employment rate in 2005. Thus for secondary school teachers, the recruitment process is selective, but at the hiring rather than the admissions phase. It has also meant that highly-qualified students who wish to become teachers apply to train as elementary teachers, rather than secondary teachers, resulting in quite a strong elementary teaching force – they are recruited from the top 5% of the high school academic cohort. However, the undersupply of elementary teachers has meant that while the majority of these teaching candidates are placed, they are not always given jobs directly suited to their subject-area training. Teachers are hired centrally at the metropolitan or provincial level based on their scores on a competitive examination. Lower secondary school teachers with the minimum education requirements in South Korea can expect a starting yearly salary of $30,401, with the potential to make as much as $84,529 by the end of their careers. While the starting salary is slightly below the OECD average of $31,687, the top of the pay scale salary is much higher than the OECD average of $51,317. Teachers’ salaries are competitive with other professional salaries in South Korea, and even starting salaries are higher than the GDP per capita. Initial Education and Training Teacher training has gone through three stages in South Korea since 1945. After WWII, there was a critical shortage in the number of elementary school teachers, and in response, the government established a number of teachertraining schools (called “normal schools”) at the secondary level, as well as non-degree granting teacher training centers. Graduates of normal schools were granted teaching certificates upon completion of upper secondary school, as well as graduates of high schools who completed an 18-week course at a training center. In 1961, all normal schools were upgraded to two-year teachers colleges; these were further upgraded to four-year institutions between 1981 and 1984. Today, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology develops South Korea’s teacher education and professional development policies, including developing the basic certification policy and overseeing the creation of additional teacher training institutes at universities. South Korea 60 Despite the fact that teacher training has Ratio of Lower Secondary Teachers’ Salary to GDP per Capita diversified, and teachers can now be (2012) trained in colleges and universities as well as at the teachers colleges, the vast majority of elementary school teachers are still trained at either the 11 teachers colleges, the South Korea National University of Education, or the Ewha Womans University. These programs involve four years of coursework, with a curriculum that is made up of both subject-area content and pedagogical theory. General courses comprise 30% of the curriculum. Of this 30%, 65% are required courses in the areas of the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and physical education. The remaining 35% of general courses are elective, and students can choose Source: OECD from courses in the humanities, language and literature, social sciences, natural sciences and the arts. Major courses (every teacher in Korea is required to have a subject major, which is listed on his or her teaching certificate) make up the other 70% of the curriculum. These comprise general pedagogy (11 subjects including educational psychology, educational sociology, educational philosophy and school and classroom management); subject-specific pedagogy; training courses for the arts and physical education; advanced courses in one of the subject areas (as well as a graduation thesis); and credits in practice teaching. The practice teaching component of the curriculum is nine weeks long and is made up of four courses in observation practice, participation practice, teaching practice and administrative work practice. Once teachers have completed four years of coursework leading to a bachelor’s degree, they are eligible to apply for a teacher certificate. They are issued a grade two certificate, which can be upgraded to grade one after three years of experience and fifteen credit hours of in-service training. There is no probationary period for new teachers, though there is in-school pre-employment training that typically lasts for two weeks and includes case studies, practical tasks and theory study as well as instruction in student guidance and classroom management. Additionally, there are six months of post-employment training, which involves instructional guidance and evaluation, classroom supervision and instruction on clerical work and student guidance. All secondary school teachers are required to hold a bachelor’s degree, though there are multiple paths to certification. Prospective teachers can be trained in a number of different institutions: colleges of education within universities; departments of education in general colleges; teaching certificate programs in general colleges; and graduate schools of education. There can often be a large degree of difference in the quality of these programs, particularly among the shorter programs (teaching certificate programs and graduate schools of education) that seek to give students with subject-area bachelor’s degrees brief and basic training to allow them to become certified. In recent years, the Korean government has addressed this issue of quality by setting up an accreditation system for teacher preparation programs, revising the curriculum of the programs, and attempting to integrate the teachers colleges and universities. As in elementary teacher education, students training to be secondary teachers who are becoming certified in full-fledged education programs are required to complete 30% of their credits in general subjects and the remaining 70% in a combination of major courses and teacher training courses, and are required to produce a graduation thesis. Students enrolled in general colleges or universities pursuing degrees in subject areas can also become certified as secondary school teachers by completing 20 credits (14% of the credits required for a bachelor’s degree) in teacher training as well as their own major requirements for the subject-area bachelor’s degree. All public school teachers must take and pass an employment test administered by the Metropolitan and Provincial Offices of Education to be hired. Each Office of Education determines how many positions they need to fill, and fills those positions based on test score rankings of applicants. Private school teachers are hired independently by the schools, though many private schools, on government advice, are now beginning to hire their teachers based on test performance. South Korea 61 Career Ladders Teachers have the opportunity to be promoted to vice-principal or principal, though the competition for these positions is very high due to South Korea’s traditional emphasis on status. Principals are responsible for school management, teacher supervision, and maintaining school facilities; the vice principal assists the principal with these duties. Teachers’ promotions are based on years of service, evaluation results, and research achievement. Teachers earn points in each of these areas that can add up to an eventual promotion, and can also earn bonus points for things like teaching in remote areas or in special education schools. The South Korean government is also in the process of institutionalizing a Master Teacher system, which was piloted in 2008. Under this system, teachers who have particularly strong skills in both teaching and leadership are designated Master Teachers. Master Teachers are expected to remain in a teaching role, but take on new responsibilities in professional development at the school and district levels. They are expected to share their expertise with other, less experienced teachers and help develop curriculum, instructional practices and evaluation systems. In order to become a Master Teacher, teachers must have a grade one certificate and ten to fifteen years of teaching experience. Screening committees in each province evaluate teachers in three steps: document screening; teaching capability observation and peer interviews; and an in-depth interview with the teacher. Master teachers are given small research grants of $150 a month in addition to their normal salaries. Professional Development The South Korean government develops and manages professional development programs for teachers. These include training for qualifications, as well as in-service training and special training in areas such as information digitalization or curriculum formation. In-service programs take place over at least 180 hours (30 days); teacher performance is assessed on a 100-point scale and teachers who complete a program earn a certificate, which can enhance their promotion and wage prospects. In order to encourage teachers to take advantage of professional development opportunities, credit hours completed can help enhance a teacher’s promotion prospects. However, teachers are not required to complete the programs, and can still be promoted without having done so. Principals can provide teachers with professional development support by recommending particular programs and using school funding to subsidize a portion of the training expense. Instructional Systems System  Design   Children between the ages of six and fifteen are required to attend school in South Korea. There are six years of elementary school, three years of junior high school and three years of senior high school. Students typically attend their local elementary and junior high schools; they do not have a great deal of school choice until the end of compulsory education, which is at the end of junior high school. Following junior high school, students may choose to enter senior high school, which is classified as either general/academic, vocational/technical or specialist/special purpose. Admission to senior high school differs across school systems. Some systems are designated “equalization areas” (these include the major metropolitan areas of Seoul, Busan, Daegu and Gwangju), and use a computer lottery system to place students. Schools in other regions admit students based on their academic records and school-administered and -developed entrance examinations. General/academic high schools provide advanced general education as well as elective courses, which students select based on their intended university course. A select set of general/academic high schools have been classified by the government as “special purpose schools;” these schools offer more specialized curriculum (for example, in science or foreign languages) and have greater autonomy. Students gain entrance to these schools through a lottery system, and about 10% of students who attend academic high school in Korea attend a special purpose school. South Korea 62 Vocational/technical high schools provide students with the education needed to enter a specific profession, and are often focused on one occupational area, (for example, agriculture, technology, commerce and fishery), although comprehensive vocational/technical schools do exist. Vocational high school applicants select their school of choice and are admitted based either on that school’s entrance exam or their junior high school grades. At the end of vocational high school, students receive a Vocational High School Certificate. Specialist schools are for elite students in a variety of fields: the arts and music, athletics, foreign language and the sciences. These schools are intended to identify future leaders in these fields and to nurture their talents. Students must apply for admission to these schools. Exact numbers about which pathways students choose are not available, although the OECD reports that 97% of students complete high school in South Korea. The majority of these students attend general/academic schools, and about 30% attend vocational schools. Curriculum South Korean schools are provided a national curriculum framework developed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST). This framework is revised every five to ten years and in addition to subject content also specifies the amount of time to be spent on each subject per school year. Although each school must teach the curriculum that MEST provides, superintendents have the autonomy to add content and standards to address the needs of their schools. At the elementary level, students are instructed in the following core subjects: ethics, Korean language, mathematics, science, social studies, PE, music and the arts. Elementary schools, in addition to providing basic instruction in core subjects, are also supposed to instill their students with basic problem-solving abilities, appreciation of tradition and culture, love for neighbors and country, and basic life habits. In lower secondary school, there is a differentiated curriculum, or ability-based grouping, for some subjects, including mathematics, English, Korean language, social studies and science. Core subjects which are not differentiated are moral education, PE, music, fine arts and practical arts. In addition to the core subjects, lower secondary school students take extracurricular and optional courses, including home economics and technology, which until recently were gender-based classes. Optional courses include foreign languages, computer and information technology and environmental education. In general/academic senior secondary school, the core subjects remain the same as in junior high school, although students are now offered specialized classes in science and social studies, which are divided into physics, chemistry, biology and earth science, and into geography, history, politics, economics and cultural studies, respectively. Students can elect their subjects within these broader groups. Specialist schools and vocational schools have their own curricula related to their fields of study, although they do require students to complete some courses in general subjects. Assessment South Korea has a system of diagnostic assessments called the National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA). Each year, achievement tests in two subjects are administered to all students in each of the grades six, nine and ten. These tests serve a purely informational purpose and are not reported by individual student. Students are also regularly assessed by their teachers at all levels, and they receive “Student School Records” or “Student Activity Records” which provide detailed information about their academic performance. These records include information on academic achievement by subject, attendance, extra-curricular and service involvement, special accomplishments, conduct and moral development, physical development, details of awards and anecdotal performance descriptions. These records are increasingly used as measures of student performance for admission at both the senior secondary and university level, in order to alleviate the examination-based pressure felt by many South Korean students. South Korea 63 Students in South Korea’s school systems that are designated “equalization areas” are admitted to senior high school based on a lottery system, and so do not face a high-stakes examination until the end of senior high school. Students in other parts of South Korea are required to take a school-administered entrance examination as part of the admissions process to senior high school. However, they are also assessed on the basis of their junior high school performance, so the test is less high-stakes than was previously the case. Following senior high school, students who want to continue to university must take a College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), which does have a major impact on their higher education prospects. Leading up to this test, most South Korean students will engage in some form of directed study outside of school, ranging from classes at hagwons, or cram schools, to private tutoring sessions. There is a culture of “examination hell” in South Korea, and students often feel incredible amounts of pressure about their performance on the CSAT. Instruction Once they reach age fifteen, South Korean students attend school on average 1020 hours a year. This is higher than the OECD average of 902 hours a year, and does not account for additional time spent in extra classes, with private tutors and in hagwons. Some estimates put the average total amount of time spent in school or studying as high as fourteen hours a day, five days a week, though other measures are more tempered; an OECD study indicates that overall, Korean students study, on average, an additional three hours a day compared to their counterparts in any of the other OECD countries. They also sleep an hour less compared to students in the US, the UK, Sweden, Finland and Germany and exercise 22 minutes less. Korean class sizes are also larger, on average, than in other OECD countries. Elementary school classes tend to enroll 28.6 students and lower secondary school classes enroll, on average, 35.3 students. These are both significantly larger than the OECD averages of 21.4 and 23.5, respectively. In elementary school, students are usually grouped by age. However, in recent years, there has been a rise in experimental ability-based grouping. Teachers are encouraged to place children in small groups and then give them problems that they will be able to solve together, rather than relying on whole-class teaching. Individual schools also began using the “open classroom” method of teaching several years ago, in which teachers reduce direct instruction and integrate multiple subject areas into group or individual projects. This method gained traction after success in independent schools, and is now used by many public schools in South Korea, with government support. At the secondary level, instruction still remains fairly traditional, as teachers are concerned with preparing students for university entrance exams. Students are grouped by age, rather than ability, although there has been an introduction of ability-based grouping in some junior and senior high schools in the past decade. The ministry encourages instructors to use active participation methods in their teaching, including engaging students in science experiments, group discussions, and surveys. There is also a strong emphasis on integrating technology into the classroom. The Ministry of Education has tried to reform upper secondary school instruction to some degree, encouraging teachers to incorporate inquiry-based learning and problem solving. Technology continues to be very important. However, there is still a high degree of examination preparation. The vast majority of South Korean high school students also seek further examination preparation outside of school, in hagwons, with private tutors, or through increasingly popular online courses. Gateways Students proceed from elementary school to junior high school through a lottery system. Following junior high school, students are admitted to senior high school in a variety of ways. Depending on the school district, entrance to senior high school depends either on a lottery system or on a combination of school-administered tests and student performance records. Graduation from high school is based on students successfully completing the required number of credit-bearing courses, and upon graduation students receive the General High School Diploma or, in the case of vocational high schools, the Vocational High School Diploma. South Korea 64 University admission is predicated on a student’s performance on the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), for which students begin studying years ahead of time. On the day of this test each year, the government reschedules the workday so that students are not exposed to traffic on their way to the test, police monitor noise in the streets, and military exercises are paused. Each Korean university has its own admission standards and selectivity rate, and students who do not perform well on the CSAT are able to attend junior colleges or less-selective four-year colleges. About 85% of Korean students go on to some form of higher education. System and School Organization Education  Finance   School for all children between the ages of six and fifteen is free. Senior high schools, for students aged fifteen to eighteen, do charge tuition fees in order to supplement government funding, but these fees do not appear burdensome enough to prevent students from attending. School funding is very centralized, with local school systems deriving 80% of their revenue from the central Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) budget. The local systems are also funded to a much smaller degree through revenue transferred from local governing bodies, internal assets, locally issued bonds, school admission fees and tuition. The Metropolitan and Provincial Offices of Education can spend the money from MEST as they see fit, though it is a matter of funds being transferred to a lower level of the same overall organization rather than an intergovernmental transfer of funds. The central ministry directly funds teachers’ salaries in elementary and lower secondary school as well as preschool programs. Annual Expenditure by Educational Institutions per Student for All Services (2011, in equivalent USD converted using PPPs for GDP, by level of education, public institutions only) Source: OECD Private schools receive a small amount of government funding and subsidies, but are primarily financed through tuition fees and support from private donors and organizations. South Korea spends $7,652 per student, as compared to the OECD average of $8,868. However, this represents 7.6% of South Korea’s GDP spent on education, as compared to the OECD average of 6.1%. This is the third-highest percent of GDP spent on education among OECD countries, after Iceland and Denmark. School Management and Organization The South Korean government has historically been very centralized, and the education system reflects this. The structure of education governance is very similar to other Korean government operations, with major initiatives produced and funded by a central office and carried out by lower, regional offshoots of the central office. 180 Regional Offices of Education report to sixteen Metropolitan and Provincial Offices of Education, who in turn report to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST). All metropolitan, municipal/regional and provincial offices of education must take general policy direction from MEST, but can make budgetary and hiring decisions for their respective regions. In recent years, there have been attempts to decentralize the system somewhat and allow more decision-making at the school level. Each school has its own school council with some degree of autonomy in terms of promoting teachers or arranging professional development, but this is still fairly limited. The Ministry of Education leaves the majority of the budget planning process and administrative decisions to the 65 municipal and provincial education offices. Local school boards are elected positions, although they are apolitical and more than 50% of board members are required by law to have at least ten years of experience in education. Accountability and Incentive Systems Schools are evaluated annually by external monitoring groups established by the provincial education offices. They complete school inspections based on a Ministry of Education evaluation plan, which sets directions and standards. School evaluations review teaching and learning practices, curriculum and student needs. The Ministry of Education has recently added school-based performance awards in which top-performing schools receive bonuses. School reviews are not used punitively; rather, struggling schools are given administrative advice about how to improve. The results of school evaluations are reported publicly. Teachers are evaluated by their principals although the principal does not have the power to directly reward or punish teachers based on their evaluations. There are, however, incentives for high performance. One major incentive is the designation of “Master Teacher,” which entitles effective, seasoned teachers to a small monthly stipend in addition to their normal salary. Additional incentives include bonuses and study abroad opportunities. Parent and Community Participation South Korea has always valued parent involvement in education. Currently, parents have access to parent groups, which meet regularly and serve as a liaison between parents and the schools. In the past two years, MEST has unveiled a new set of initiatives, to expand parents’ role in and access to their child’s education. These initiatives range from school monitoring programs, in which parents can get a clear sense of what is happening in their child’s school, to parents’ training programs and support centers. All of these programs are intended to encourage parents to understand their child’s progress, be aware of their school resources and get involved by volunteering or becoming a part of a parents’ group. Parents have also traditionally had a big impact on the direction of their child’s education through their choice to pay for hagwons (cram schools), tutors, school fees, extracurricular activities and other educational costs. South Koreans tend to spend much more of their personal income on education and education products than in many other countries, with some figures suggesting that it is as much as 15% of the GNP, and up to 22% of household income. There is a clear emphasis on learning the English language, and parents seem particularly willing to invest in English-language tutoring and classes. Education For All Student  Support  Systems   In South Korea, the Education Ministry provides extra services and support for certain populations of students, including those from low-income and/or multicultural families, students with mental illnesses and students who have defected from North Korea. The government is in the process of expanding mentoring, counseling, welfare and complementary education services for students in need from these populations, and extending these services to their parents. Students from low-income families have access to vouchers for extracurricular activity fees and special university scholarships. In 2008, the South Korean government piloted the “Head Start” program for preschool students from migrant families. The program works with young students to improve language ability, cognitive ability, social skills and emotional stability so they can start elementary school on even footing with their classmates. There are also several incentives for teachers to work in schools with high proportions of students from low-income families. These include smaller class sizes, higher salaries, reduced instructional time, credit towards future promotions and a choice of the location of a future teaching position. As a result of these incentives, OECD has found that students from lowSouth Korea 66 income families are more likely than students from high-income families to by taught by high quality teachers, as measured by level of certification, education and training and years of experience. Students with conditions such as ADHD or depression have access to consultation and therapy through the Wee (We+Education+Emotion) Project. There is a focus on early identification and intervention; students in many schools are screened yearly, and the number of schools in which this service is available is expanding. For students whose conditions do not allow them to attend mainstream schools, the government is in the process of establishing an “Alternative Autonomous School” focused on character-based education, as well as an Air and Correspondence High School for students who cannot attend school in person. Students from multicultural families and from North Korea have access to counseling and welfare services, and the government has instituted a “Global Bridge” program for multicultural students. This program selects 100 multicultural students to participate, which is intended to provide connections between South Korea and these students’ home countries. PISA 2012: Variation in Mathematics Performance The Ministry of Education also requires that there Explained by Socioeconomic Background be at least one special school in each province to serve the estimated 2.4% of South Korean students who need special education. The majority of special schools are comprehensive, serving students of all ages with severe handicaps. Students with mild to moderate special needs are encouraged to remain in the mainstream schools, either enrolled in special classes within the school, or in a combination of special and mainstream classes according to ability. In 2007, the Ministry of Education instituted a program intended to integrate special needs education into mainstream education as much as possible. Central components of this program were the creation of more jobs for special needs teachers in mainstream schools and Source: OECD professional development for mainstream teachers to prepare them to work with students with special needs. Currently, the Ministry is in the process of expanding compulsory special needs education to children as young as four, upgrading vocational opportunities for teenage special needs students and establishing special needs support groups in colleges. Low-Performing Schools South Korea’s performance disparity among schools is 31.6%, which is comparable to the OECD average of 33%. However, this disparity is not explained by students’ socioeconomic status; differing economic backgrounds account for only 3.6% of the performance gap. The story is not the same for schools with different socioeconomic statuses, however: a school’s socioeconomic conditions account for 51.3% of student performance disparity. Although the Ministry of Education distributes funding to local education offices equitably, this funding is then often distributed inequitably among schools. Furthermore, student fees – essentially, “parent funding” – are not equal across schools, resulting in some schools having a great deal more money than others, and consequently more resources. South Korea is moving towards a less-centralized system of funding and greater school autonomy, hoping that schools will South Korea 67 be able to address their weaknesses with more managerial freedom, because they will be able to allocate funding where it is needed. Most of South Korea’s policies to close educational achievement gaps are focused on helping low-performing students rather than schools. However, one innovation undertaken by the Ministry was the 2010 decision to target violence in schools. This plan includes education for children between the ages of three and twelve on the topics of violence prevention, the introduction of CCTV cameras in schools, special counseling centers for students affected by school violence and the publication of schools’ school violence records. In schools with a high percentage of underprivileged students, the Ministry started the “Notice Service for Child Safety” in 2010. This service sends a text message to parents when their child arrives and departs from school. The Ministry intends to have this service available in all elementary schools in 2012. School-to-Work Transition Students may choose to pursue vocational education in vocational high schools, starting in grade eleven. These schools offer courses in agriculture, industry, commerce, home economics and maritime studies. Vocational high schools are in the process of changing to meet the growing demands for skilled workers in scientific and technological fields by creating new programs in these fields. About 27% of South Korean students are enrolled in school-based vocational and technical education. Of these students, 43% go on to junior college, and another 25% go on to university. The Ministry is currently revamping South Korea’s career education programs, as well as restructuring curriculum and pathways in vocational schools. Students are encouraged to identify their talents and aptitude at an early stage, and pursue career-centered learning throughout elementary and secondary school. The Ministry is also in the process of updating curricula in conjunction with industry needs, placing a heavy emphasis on collaboration between businesses and schools and by making internships available to vocational students. Lifelong education is defined in South Korea as any form of education outside of traditional schooling. Lifelong educational opportunities are categorized as either para-school, occupational or technical, and general or liberal. Para-schools include night classes for middle or secondary education, distance universities, industry-attached schools and civic schools. Occupational or technical education is offered at learning centers run by the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. General education is informal, and is supported by museums, public libraries, theaters, cultural centers and media campaigns. The Ministry is currently working on a records and qualification framework for lifelong learning programs and encouraging universities to structure more classes for the adult learner. The goal is a Life-long Learning Account System, an online career management system that will record each worker’s various learning experiences, providing information for employers based on uniform standards. There is already a similar Credit Bank system in place, which allows people without formal higher education to accrue credits and ultimately degrees through various lifelong learning programs and courses. South Korea 68