Under the banner of the United Nations - a report on the education of three countries in Southeast Asia

Under the banner of the United Nations - an investigation report on education in three countries in Southeast Asia

In order to promote the international exchange and cooperation of Xuhui Education, learn from the successful experience of education in various countries, and explore new ways of common development, we have formed the head of the district deputy director Gu Kuihua, and the director of the District Education Bureau Wang Shugong as the deputy head of Xuhui. The education delegation, a group of seven, visited the education situation in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore from September 20 to October 1, 2003. The situation is summarized and reported below.
I. Purpose of the visit There are two direct purposes of this visit: one is to report to the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Office on the progress of the district as an educational innovation experimental area of ​​the center and as the ninth year of the APEID project of the center. The preparations for the meeting of the organizer will be held. Listen to the guidance of UNESCO officials and experts to facilitate the next phase of work.
The second is a cursory study of the education of Bangkok, Thailand and Singapore, where the local office is located, focusing on some of our current hot issues, in order to facilitate comparative analysis.
2. Meeting the status report of the UNESCO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
At 2 pm on September 22, the delegation arrived at the ground floor building with the UNESCO flag on time. Director Zhou Nanzhao first received us at his office, and took us to visit the offices of the office to meet with the experts from all over the world.
Subsequently, the meeting was formally held in the conference room on the fifth floor. Mr. Schiffer, Director of Education for the Asia-Pacific Region of UNESCO, gave a welcome speech. He fully affirmed the fruitful education and innovation in Shanghai and Xuhui District of China, expressed his gratitude to Xuhui District for hosting a large number of preparatory work, and expressed warm welcome to the arrival of Xuhui delegation. Afterwards, Mr. Gu Kuihua delivered a speech: I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the officials and experts of UNESCO for their support and concern for the educational innovation in our region; for the 14 months since our district became the UNESCO Educational Innovation Experimental Zone A brief review and show our good wishes for international cooperation and exchanges and participation in international activities under the banner of the United Nations.
Dr. Zhou Nanzhao, Acting Director of the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Center for Education Innovation and Development and Senior Program of International Education, introduced the five major functions of UNESCO in education: the laboratory of ideas, the makers of standards, and the ability Builders, providers of information, and promoters of international cooperation. As offices in the Asia-Pacific region, they have to perform these five functions in education in the Asia-Pacific region.
Dr. Zhou then introduced us to the organizational structure of UNESCO in the Asia-Pacific region. The UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Office, the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Education Bureau, is UNESCO's headquarters in the Asia-Pacific region. There are offices in each sub-region, such as the East Asia regional office in Beijing, and national offices in various countries, such as the UNESCO Vietnam Office. The sub-regional offices and the national offices have maintained good relations and cooperation with the Asia-Pacific regional offices to jointly promote the above five functions. Through such an organizational structure, 44 countries in the Asia-Pacific region have now been organized.
The UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Office is advancing through specific projects in its operations. There is only one project that was first promoted, namely the comprehensive education plan for the Asia-Pacific region. It is actually a cooperative project to achieve education for all and eliminate illiteracy among young people. Later, another project was separated from this project – education innovation served the social development. This is a major project currently being organized, and much work is being carried out around this project. This project is part of the project. Xuhui Education Bureau is one of the contact centers of APEID. At present, there are only 16 contact centers in China, and East China Normal University in Shanghai.
Now, the local office is promoting other projects at the same time. The person in charge of the project introduced us.
Ms. Rossia, she is in charge of three projects: 1. Youth science and technology education, 2. Curriculum and teacher training, 3. Education for sustainable development, that is, the United Nations EPD project that some schools in our district are participating in.
Mr. Sihara, he is in charge of two projects: 1. Distance higher education in the Greater Mekong Region, 2, ICT projects before the project they are in the start-up phase, the delegation has established good relations with the two experts, expressing Xuhui District's willingness to actively participate in international education cooperation projects. The two experts are very willing to strengthen cooperation with relevant agencies and units in our district, and said that they will continue to explore channels and methods of cooperation when they arrive in Shanghai in November. The research on international education cooperation projects has become an area that Xuhui District must focus on after joining UNESCO.
Mr. Wang Yugong, deputy head of the delegation, reported to the UN officials and experts on the “educational innovation of the lifelong education system” in our district, and provided venues, websites, material preparation, participation in seminars, secretarial services, and simultaneous voices. The preparatory work for translation services, English-speaking personnel services, printing of conference materials, arrangements for visits, and cooperation with the local office to develop an agenda were reported. The Director of the Local Office expressed satisfaction with the preparations for the meeting. And put forward some constructive opinions: the production of Xuhui District as a region to comprehensively promote education innovation album, organize Chinese and foreign students to talk about educational innovation.
The UNESCO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific has shown special attention and special encouragement for the comprehensive and systematic educational innovation of the region as a region. After the talks, officials from the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Office and experts and all members of the delegation took a group photo under the banner of the United Nations. In the halls and corridors of the office buildings where the office is located, there are photos of poor children receiving education. Local officials and experts carry out the UN's purpose, serve the common development of all mankind, and deeply infect the leading ideas of the poor people. Everyone in the delegation.
On September 25, the delegation met again with UNESCO officials. Mr. Zhou Nanzhao and Mr. Sihara participated in the talks and discussed the specific situation of the ninth annual meeting held in Xuhui District. During the talks, Mr. Zhou Nanzhao also introduced the work of the Thai National Committee for Education and Science. During the stay in Thailand, the delegation contacted the officials of the Thai National Science and Technology Commission and met in Shanghai to continue discussions on strengthening cooperation projects.
3. Report on the investigation and study of education in Thailand and Singapore
1. Thailand Education Study In Thailand, we focused on two Chinese small and one vocational schools. They all have their own characteristics.
1) Royal Thai Boys School This is a truly aristocratic school. In the 1920s and 1930s, the King of Thailand V returned to China from the United Kingdom to change the hereditary practice of building temples. The money for building temples was used to create such a men’s school. The schoolhouse preserved the style of Thai temples and palaces. This Royal Men’s School still retains the school-running model of the British Eton College.
In addition to the annual funds allocated by the Royal Palace, the school’s school-run funds are mainly financed by expensive tuition fees. It is said that the annual tuition fee for each student is about 300,000 baht. The school enrolled students from the third year of the National Primary School. After fierce competition every year, the King finally officially confirmed the list of new students, no more than 80 people each year. His schooling system was from the third grade of the national junior high school to the third grade of high school, and then admitted to the university. Judging from the admission to the university over the years, the school does not guarantee that students will be admitted to a prestigious university. At this point, the school made it clear to the parents when they enrolled in the third grade. What is hard to believe is that parents are still willing to send their children to the school at a high price, so that there is fierce competition for enrollment every year. It can be seen that parents are not worthy of being admitted to a prestigious university. However, they are proud that the graduates of the Royal Men’s School have a strong development potential after entering the university. They can become the pillars of society after entering the society.
This training is based on their unique curriculum structure. Generally, they take a cultural class in the morning, a physical fitness class in the afternoon, and various cultural and recreational activities. Rugby, swimming, fencing, etc. become their compulsory courses, and all students live on campus and take care of themselves.
We went to the school in the afternoon. The principal accompanied us to the reading room, the labor room, the computer room and their student work showroom. The students encountered are full of vitality and vitality, and their body is full of reality. Their creativity and imagination can be seen everywhere, and they are polite and graceful. It allows us to see the prototype of the future social elite in Thailand.
2) Thai Church Girls' School This is a girls' school held by the Thai Christian Church and has a history of more than 100 years. There are now more than 3,000 students in school. The scale is quite large. In the academic system, the system is implemented by kindergartens, small and medium-sized countries. From the principal to the teacher, students are bound by the teachings of Christian doctrine. Before the principal received us officially, the principal led us to pray to God and told God that there are precious Chinese guests coming to school today. We have lunch at the school and we have to pray to God collectively before eating. It can be seen that Christianity affects people's thoughts and behaviors.
The size of the school is quite large, and the buildings and facilities are both old and new. We connected to Xuhui Education website on the computer of the school library, visited the news of Xuhui Education, and handled some official affairs on the management platform of the Education Bureau. It can be seen that the information has been globalized. The school aims to train women who are patriotic, love the king, and meet the requirements of Christianity. In the curriculum setting, 70% is a national curriculum, that is, a course prescribed by the Ministry of Education of Thailand, using a unified textbook. Thirty percent are school-based courses, and their school-based curriculum includes English, comprehensive science, etc. The selected materials are determined by the school board.
After the introduction of the principal of the school, we accompanied us to visit the campus, during which we watched the Thai group dance performed by junior high school students. We were deeply impressed by their library and computer network. However, there is still a lack of multimedia equipment in the classroom. The students they see seem to be careful and obedient, generous, energetic and not creative enough.
3) Dusit Thani Hotel Management School This is a vocational and technical school. It was founded in 1993 by the Dusit Thani International Hotel Group as a professional college for hotel management. The college aims to train all kinds of professionals who meet the requirements of the international hotel service industry. Despite the impact of the financial turmoil, the college still maintains a strong vitality.
One source of funding for the college is the investment by the Dusit Thani International Hotel Group. The second is the tuition fee income of students. Its educational achievements - the talents trained are first hired by the Dusit Thani Group and then used by other companies. They are taking the road of a government-run school, self-sponsored school, paid educational use, and market-oriented operation. This is the same as our vocational school, which is mostly run by the government. The practice of taking up educational achievements without compensation is different.
The school now has more than 1,400 students and 50 teachers, and the annual tuition fee is 100,000 Thais per person. 4 years of schooling. The college implements a credit system. Among them, there are 36 credits for general education courses in language, humanities, social sciences, mathematics, 102 credits for professional courses, 9 credits for elective courses, and no credit for internships, but must reach 1,000 hours. The college has recruited foreign students since last year, including Chinese students. We met two Chinese students from Beijing and Shandong at the school. They lived and studied well. They made us realize that we can also attract foreign students to study in China.
The government's management of the school is manifested in two aspects. First, the college must abide by the state's education laws and regulations; second, its courses, including degrees, must be reported to the government for approval.
2. Singapore Education Study We visited a secondary school and a children's language center in Singapore.
1) Nanyang Girls' High School Nanyang Girls' High School was founded in 1917. It is one of the earliest Chinese women's schools in Singapore and one of the top-ranking schools in more than 140 secondary schools in Singapore.
The school building was officially announced by Li Guangyao in 2000. There are 1781 students. Every three students have a computer, and the teacher computer has reached one. It can be seen that it is a fairly modern school.
The school regards “making every student a person who is respected by society” as an educational principle. The school strives to combine Chinese tradition with modern high-tech advanced teaching to impart knowledge and life skills to students and to inculcate correct moral values ​​to help them become outstanding talents in various fields in the future. The school put forward the training requirements of “diligence, caution, end, and simplicity”. The idea of ​​the comprehensive development of the five-education of "the virtue, the beauty of the body and the masses" was put forward. Group education, we understand that it is to cultivate the quality of the group by organizing group activities.
In 1993, the school was transformed into a self-study school and became one of the eight independent schools in Singapore. Autonomous schools can directly hire teachers and can develop courses on their own. The funding for autonomous schools consists of three parts: First, government funding. At present, the Ministry of Education's allocation to Nanyang women accounts for 88% of the school's funding. It can be said that most of the funds are allocated by the government. Second, the school board of directors raised funds. The board of directors of the school is generally held by alumni who have served in social positions or have become celebrities. The board of directors not only raises funds, but also helps the school to contact the outside world to solve matters such as internship activities. The third is the tuition fee income of students. At present, students are charged 100 SGD per person per year and plans to increase to S$130 per person next year, but they must still report to the Ministry of Education and be approved.
Singapore’s academic system is special. The government implements six years of compulsory education. Then through the National Primary School examination, students enter various junior high schools to study. The Nanyang Women’s School has become a school in which all Singaporean students compete. Nanyang Women's High School is a four-year program. It is three years in China and one year in high school. This is the same as most secondary schools in Singapore. After completing the four-year secondary school, students can enter various junior colleges to continue to complete the second and third year courses, and then apply to the university. If you can't get a high-level school, you can find all kinds of vocational training, and then work and work. It can be imagined that among the Nanyang women under this academic system, the competition for running a school is quite fierce.
Nanyang female and Chinese, with three women in Shanghai, Nanmo Middle School and other friendly exchanges, and scholarships to attract Chinese students to study. Two Chinese students from Beijing and Shenyang accompanied us to visit the campus. They have been respected by the school and their students with their hard work and excellent moral character.
2) Julia Garbo Language and Art Center The Julia Garbo Language and Art Center is a private education institution in Singapore that focuses on language education for young children and Chinese language education for adults and adults. The center is located in the most prosperous Orchard Road in Singapore. They implement “bilingual teaching” in English and Chinese for young children; their teaching methods are through game activities, especially through drama scenarios, which enable students to enter roles and stimulate speech in the activity scenarios. They have designed a variety of interesting teaching content to educate children of all ages.
The center is jointly run by a company in Singapore and is mainly maintained by tuition income. School buildings are mainly rented. Teachers are freely recruited by the center, and the Chinese course employs two professors from the Beijing Central Academy of Drama to plan and host.
We saw the teaching of parent-child classes for their 0-3 year olds. Parents and babies participate in the event together. Three times a week, 1.5 hours each time, teaching in the form of music, drama, etc., the content is fun and interesting, suitable for baby characteristics. Parents and babies are very happy.
3-6 years old children, they come to the garden independently to start learning "biling". The language is still developed in a dramatic way. Generally a teacher takes six children for language development. They also applied "bilingual teaching" to Chinese students, mainly through the use of students' holidays.
The Julia Garbo Language and Art Center has achieved good results through the use of drama art to strengthen language teaching. In particular, the measures to strengthen Chinese education and promote the essence of Chinese culture have made us feel deeply. The Centre is currently one of the two largest language training centres in Singapore and is promoting its unique continuation approach in other Asian countries. During the visit, the Julia Garbo Language and Art Center expressed its strong willingness to strengthen cooperation with Xuhui District. The delegation expressed its cooperation idea of ​​continuing to strengthen contacts.
In addition to the group visits of the above five schools, members of our delegation also visited four schools including the Genetic computer school and the Arolmore school of commerce in Thailand and Singapore, and the introduction of an international identification course for advanced information technology. The bilingual teaching of IT courses and the cooperation of Zhongtai, China-Singapore cooperation and other projects have reached a cooperation intention.
The results of the study and discussion were conducted through field visits to schools in Thailand, Singapore and other countries, and we also learned about the state of education in the process of passing through Malaysia. In addition to the intense investigation, the delegation summarized the first-hand information obtained. Through heated discussions, we had a preliminary understanding of the issues we focused on and formed the results of the investigation. Now we put forward our views and use them as discuss.
1. Education Internationalization and the Inheritance of National Culture With the integration of the global economy, the further deepening of China's opening up policy, the construction of Shanghai's international metropolis, and the internationalization of education have become a major trend. However, how to maintain the inheritance of national culture in the process of China's education in the process of internationalization is a major issue. If we do not have a correct understanding of this now, the consequences will be serious.
The three Southeast Asian countries of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore are very open to the outside world, and their economies have long been integrated into the world economy, especially Singapore. The country is simply a microcosm of the global economy. All kinds of ethnic groups and ethnic groups in the East and West live here. The strong impression that these three countries give us is the diversity of their culture. The cultures of all ethnic groups and ethnic groups are respected here. As far as religion is concerned, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism all share here. And this symbiosis has promoted social stability and economic prosperity. Just as Comrade Jiang Zemin quoted the ancient Chinese saying well: "Gentlemen are different and coexist with each other, and they complement each other." Therefore, true internationalization necessarily requires cultural pluralism.
In this international context of cultural diversity, the culture of all ethnic groups is not only achievable, but must be better passed down and carried forward. The inheritance of the Chinese culture in the three countries of Southeast Asia has made us awe-inspiring. There are not only Chinatown, Chinatown, but also Guanyin Temple, Mazu Temple, Guandi Temple and Confucius Temple. Since the 1980s, Singapore has carried out a more extensive Chinese language education campaign, promoting the simplification of Chinese characters and cherishing the history of China. In this context, the function of education as a national cultural heritage has been given due play. In particular, Confucian culture of Confucius was fully inherited in school education.
Looking back at China's situation, as the inheritance of the Chinese culture of 1.3 billion people, its heavy responsibility should of course be taken care of by education. Our schools must be confident in strengthening the education of the nation's outstanding culture, and we must be confident in cultivating the righteous Chinese who can integrate into the world. Especially the traditional Chinese virtue education, can not relax. A nation that cannot stand on its own mainstream culture is hard to become a truly powerful nation.
2. The problem of bilingual teaching is related to the inheritance of national culture. The problem of bilingual teaching has many controversies in the education sector in China. It has become a focus of our investigation. To illustrate the problem, we introduce the concept of a first language and a second language. The first language refers to the language common to local social communication, and is also the language of instruction in the school's mathematics, physics and other cultural classes. The second language refers to the language that is common in international communication or the language of other nation-states, although it is not common in local social communication.
Comparison of "Bilingual" between Southeast Asian countries and China Table Thai Thai English Malaysian Malay English Singaporean English Chinese Chinese Chinese English As can be seen from the above table, the first language of Thailand, Malaysia and China is the national language, and the schools are taught in Mandarin. With communication, the first language in Singapore is English. Children learn and communicate in English from an early age, and schools teach in English.
The so-called "bilingual teaching" means that in addition to teaching in the first language, the school also offers a second language course for students. English classes are offered in Thailand, Malaysia and China, while Chinese classes or Malay and Hindi courses are offered in Singapore. This is the "bilingual teaching" of the three Southeast Asian countries. At present, the meaning of "bilingual teaching" promoted by the education sector in China is broader. In addition to English teaching, China is trying to teach mathematics and physics courses in a second language. This may be related to China's English-based basic environment, and the society is concerned with the increasingly high national conditions for English communication. The three Southeast Asian countries have long been British colonies. The use of English is extensive. After independence, international exchanges and cooperation have not been interrupted. The English environment has always been good. Therefore, it is very important to strengthen the teaching tasks of national languages. To this end, even aristocratic schools like the Royal Boys School of Thailand, with English-speaking English teachers, teach pure British English, but in addition to the English courses, other courses are still in Thai. Therefore, from the perspective of the three Southeast Asian countries, the establishment of "bilingual teaching" in Chinese small schools must be combined with their own national conditions, and according to the needs of development, highlight a certain key point in a certain period to meet the needs of social and economic development.
As far as China is concerned, Chinese is still our first language and should be respected and strengthened. On this basis, it is necessary and necessary to strengthen the teaching of English classes, strengthen oral and listening training, and increase the opportunities for English use. This is also very urgent. However, this is a reform of language teaching and must follow the rules of language teaching. At present, we should actively test and boldly explore in schools or disciplines with better conditions, in order to promote successful experiences and then promote them. For ordinary schools, we should continue to advocate strengthening English teaching, and effectively improve the English foundation of students. It is not appropriate to “refurbish” and unrealistically open “bilingual courses”. We cannot improve our English at the expense of the cultural foundation of our students. Because language is a tool of thinking, what language thinking is not easily changeable. This kind of thinking is especially important in the learning process of students' cultural knowledge. We are deeply aware of the difficulty of this change at the Julia Garbo Language and Art Center in Singapore, where we talked with the professors of the Central Academy of Drama. We must prevent the confusion of the concept of "bilingual teaching" from bringing confusion to the mind. It is necessary to correctly understand the importance and necessity of "bilingual teaching" from the higher level of education internationalization and the inheritance of national culture, so that "bilingual teaching" "Get healthy development."
3. School self-sponsorship issues As a government education delegation, we pay close attention to the school's self-sponsorship issues. During the inspection, the common characteristics of the three schools in Southeast Asia have attracted our attention.
First of all, it is the government's management according to law, schools run schools according to law, and the society supervises according to law. The main body of the school is active within the legal framework.
Second, the school's funding sources are diversified. After all, education is a social undertaking that is invested a lot. It is not enough to rely solely on government investment and student contributions. Therefore, the self-sponsored schools in each country have a relatively solid financial commitment, or royal, or government, or church, or corporate consortium. The private and publicly-reformed schools in our district have made certain contributions to the education of the district. However, the source of funding support is relatively simple and lacks a solid backing, making it impossible for school principals to self-study. In the future, schools that are newly established or will be established by non-government offices should pay attention to whether they have a stable financial commitment during the examination and approval.
4. Evaluation of the quality of China's small education The evaluation of the quality of China's small education is a sensitive and deep question. We have been involved in this investigation.
Judging from the academic system of the countries under investigation, they all decided to go to a higher level school and go to university. The role of the joint test baton cannot be said to be small. Not only that, Singapore has also publicly announced the ranking of the test scores of Secondary 3 students in the newspaper since August 1992, for 12 consecutive years. At present, some important newspapers have begun to comment and reflect on this. Some public opinion believes that the public rankings benefit the students with general learning ability, and the high-quality students of the top prestigious schools are the victims. They have to fight for the door A and repeat the mechanical drills and test every day. Ranking is also not conducive to the incentives for students with poor learning ability. We discussed this issue together with the Nanyang Women's Middle School Principal. She believes that this ranking has tied the school, making education more and more urgent and easy to implement a truly effective education. According to her, the leading school leaders in Singapore have basically taken a negative attitude towards this approach. On the other hand, the Singapore government is adjusting its policies to adopt measures to issue school bonuses at high value added. The so-called high value-added value is that compared with the graduation results, it is not reasonable to perfect the simple ranking. Therefore, in order to increase the value of the competition, the school has also begun to strive for "poor students", for all students, to achieve better results. This is called by the media the most positive effect brought by the perfect ranking. In view of this understanding, some famous schools in Singapore have begun to be unaffected by rankings, such as Huaqiao Middle School and Nanyang Girls' High School, which have begun to seek higher development. The Royal Thai Men’s School introduced in this article is a model for the overall development of students.
Evaluation of the quality of small teaching in China The three countries are more focused on examinations, and there are public rankings. Schools, society and parents have a more rational understanding of academic achievement rankings. Putting students in the first place is worthy of our good use. People in the education circles of the Three Kingdoms generally believe that evaluation is a double-edged sword. Different value orientations will lead to different evaluation results. They should not be over-reliant on rankings. They should grasp the "degree" of evaluation to maximize the positive effects of evaluation and prevent negative effects.
The issues yet to be further investigated are only limited to the school level in the three countries of Southeast Asia. The study of the educational giants in one area needs to be further developed. Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region have a long history with Chinese culture, and the cultural background is relatively the same. The prospects for strengthening education exchanges and cooperation are very broad. To this end, we have reached a consensus with the UNESCO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and by UNESCO, under the banner of the United Nations, strengthen the contact between the APEID Contact Center in Xuhui District and the Asia-Pacific region, especially the Southeast Asian countries. And multilateral educational exchanges and cooperation, broaden the channels for the internationalization of Xuhui Education, and enhance the ability and standard of Xuhui Education to participate in international exchanges and cooperation. During his stay in Thailand, the delegation had contact with the Director of the Thailand Office to prepare for the exchange of visits between the regional government education administrations in the future. During the November meeting, the Education Bureau will further strengthen ties with educational institutions in various countries, establish a normal mechanism for cooperation and exchange, and promote the process of internationalization of Xuhui Education.

Attachment: List of Shanghai Xuhui Education Delegations in China

Head: Gu Kuihua, deputy head: Wang Yugong, member: Ren Bosheng, Jiang Min, Zhang Cailong, Zhu Jianhua, Song Kaicheng

Write a pen Zhang Cailong responsible editor