Finland education is always regarded as the world’s best
educational system, and European countries usually get the high ranking
compared to Asian countries. But does it need to always be like that?
In BBC News “Asia tops biggest global school rankings”(2015),
we are told that Singapore get the number 1 rank out of 76 countries in global
school ranking of 15-year-old students based on the math-science test score.
And “The top five places are all taken by Asian countries - Singapore, Hong
Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan”, meanwhile Finland is at the sixth and
Ghana is at the bottom.
Honestly, I am quite surprised that Finland is not at the
top place, but at the sixth. Moreover, all the top five places were leaded by
Asian countries. But after I considered the ranking for a while, I found that they
deserve it. Everybody needs to admit that they have a very intensive and competitive
education. Students study very hard. After school, they go to cram school and
focus on their study until 10 pm, then back home and do some homework. When I thought
about this tough story, I was like, yeah they worth the top 5 places, I will
give it to you without hesitation.
On the other hand, in Finland kids finish their school much
earlier, at 2 pm, and don’t have much pressure in studying. Nevertheless, they
are at the sixth. Although they lose Singapore in this ranking, I still think Finnish
students have more happily lives and more effective education system.
Another surprising thing for me is Vietnam. It has improved
so fast (or Thailand’s improvement is too slow, I’m not sure). It is in 12th
place, higher than UK and other European countries. This tells us that Vietnam
is very ready to go forward to the global step. The government has planned Vietnam’s
development strategies for a decade, and the result is very satisfied.
For Thailand, we are in 47th place. It is not a
bad position and also not a good one. It’s just okay. I think our lives are not
much different from those top 5 countries; go to cram school both in the evening
and in the weekend, spend our summer break for tutoring etc. But personally, my
life is not that tough. I didn't study that hard. Lucky me!
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I'm surprised that we got 47th place in the ranking which is lower than what I thought since we're also studying so madly from 8 till 4 and Mon till Sat.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this result might be not entirely correct because, I believe, there is no universal curriculum for what every 15-years-old kid on earth should have already learnt so far, and therefore their test, which I assume that it's based on only some countries' curriculum, isn't appropriate to use for their survey. In some countries, 15-years-old kids may already know about Newton's laws; on the other hands, in other countries, they may not. If the test do ask about Newton's laws, should we put in the lower ranks those countries whose curriculum don't include Newton's law?
I agree with you that Thai students also study hard and always win in Olympic race, but still are ranked in less order.
DeleteBack in my school day, I didn't study like crazy from 8 to 4 and Mon to Sat, and most of the time in my classes, I would just sleep through it or just draw some doodles while pretending to listen to what my teachers say.
DeleteI think that is why our rank is so low and get 47th place, because there are a lots of students who just like me or perhaps worse than me too much in this country, but don't be disappointed, this is just how things are in Thailand,I guess? well.. I am not the smartest one around here anyway.
I am not surprise that Singapore got the first place because I've heard a lot that Singapore schools have very high standard of education and I think that Singapore have very good and efficient leader too.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I also agree with Tin that we have no standard curriculum and test for every country, therefore, I think that we could not use the results to tell correctly and precisely which country is better.
I am not surprise that Singapore got the first place too because one of the best art schools is in Singapore and not only just that but also the Arts industry over there is seem to be much more developed than many countries in the world such as Thailand.
DeleteThis article is one of key points in which we, everyone, should seriously realize how we have to develop education in our country. It means the rank of our country is not good and far from the rank of neighbor country. Now, all Southeast Asia try to work very hard for assembling to be AEC in which it results to economic and quality of life in this area and increases other regions to invest in our region. One of the causes I think that Thai students takes too much classes and don't know how to apply it for real life. Moreover, most teachers give directly more knowledge more than teach the way of thinking; therefore, the people hardly practice themselves solve problems; for example, in class, most students hardly answer the question and express ideas compared to US education system. All of theses reason, Thailand is still ranked behind almost all neighbor country and should be improved as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteAfter I finished reading this article, a lot of things came into my mind. Well, If Thailand does not have corruption, Thailand would be in the top 10 of the biggest global school rankings.
ReplyDeleteLike you said earlier, "our lives are not much different from those top 5 countries; go to cram school both in the evening and in the weekend, spend our summer break for tutoring".
Before we attend to the university, we study so hard, try to get a good grade in high school, go to cram school everyday,read and do a lot of homework before go to bed. Our routines are like this to attend to a good university. It seems like a tough time for us.
Sometimes, I was wondering why we have to study so hard like this? Do we deserve a happy and relax education?
In my opinion, I think that Germany is the best place for education.
If you look at Germany, their country is very powerful in everything such as stable economic, good education, good leader and also good technology. I have no wonder why this country never ever face a bad economic crisis while every countries in Europe such as Greece, Spain, Italy are facing a touch time with economic stagnation.
I think like that but I don't surprise it , like Tin said, Thai student learn very hard but I think that it is useless. Thai education system is very terrible, they taught student to remember everything and admire people who has a high score with science or math subject, so many parents try to force their children to learn ion tutorial school everyday to make them better than everyone and can entrance to famous university. However, they forget something, " Life Experience" this is make them to know how to live through hard obstracle in their lives and make them know that what they truly love
ReplyDelete