Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Education in China

Out of the mouths of babes and Chairmen....


Last night, my pal The Chairman was making excuses for having to go home early, not drinking too much (naturally, he went home late, after drinking a lot):

"I have to work tomorrow. I have to finish writing the end-of-term exam. And then I have to give my students the answers."


Hah!

What he meant was that he had to work out what the answers were (he has somehow landed himself a job teaching A-Level 'Business Studies', a subject with which he is barely conversant), and perhaps write up some model examples for use in post-exam review...... rather than that he would he have to pre-prep his charges to assist them in their almost inevitable cheating. But the latter is, sadly, a pretty common phenomenon here.

2 comments:

The British Cowboy said...

I have found those educated in the PRC to be very well up on "the facts" but very limited on the lateral thinking kind of aspects. This does not help in a legal career, and has caused some dispute in interviewing...

Froog said...

Yes, there's probably only one lawyer in a hundred here that's got the slightest clue about legal reasoning. Even some of the very bright ones I've worked with (I was doing a 'Legal English' course with a British firm a few months back) show remarkably little mental agility - or even eagerness to explore - outside of their own field.