I just read an article from the BBC explaining how the Uk's Department of Education is bringing across 60 Shanghai maths teachers to 'rise the standards' in the UK. They have developed this idea to open up new "Maths hubs" where you can go to improve your maths. All this came because children in China have better maths skills than English Children.
Here is a link to the article:
Click Here.
So, does the government actually know what they are doing? This sounds very childish to me. It seems like someone has been reading the test scores of other countries, noticed that Chinese children in Shanghai have better maths than us and simply gone "Oh, well they must have good Maths Teachers. Lets pay them to come over to us and teach us how its done shall we?"
To those that are teachers and work hard to teach Mathematics in any setting whether that be Nursery, Pre-School, Primary, Secondary or Higher its a little bit like being stabbed in the back. Plus its not going to solve the issue at all. There are some children in our country that need extra support to understand the subjects, however with government cuts we are unable to do this. Basically what is the point in cutting back funding for teaching in our English Schools, but then spending that on shipping teachers in from another country because children aren't doing too well in Maths?
If the Ministry of Education actually started to listen to the teachers they might actually learn that Maths is not an easy to subject to teach. It can be very tedious and it can be hard to grasp a firm understanding. Its hard to keep children motivated and focused on some Maths lesson because the standard they want taught are hard to teach without help. I know for example I was never good at Maths, and it wasn't until year 9/10 of Secondary School that I actually started to understand half of the formulas needed. (However it was all bloody algebra and there was more X's, Y's and Z's in Maths than numbers at GCSE, so of course I was going to get mixed up).
Plus not to mention all children learn at a different pace and stage. For example some children can pick up Maths really easy and be able to count and do sums easy, however some can really struggle. I really don't see how bringing over 60 foreign Maths teachers is going to even make a dent or do any difference whatsoever. The Chinese way of teaching is totally different from our methods.
From my module at University on International Perspectives and from my Lecturer and Class mate talking about their experience about the Chinese Education system it is totally different. The picture on the left is a photo taken of a standard Chinese Primary School Classroom during a lesson. From what I understand Chinese children will sit at those desks and learn independantly whether they understand or not. There will be one teacher for all the children in the class and hardly any teaching assistants. It looks like something you would expect to see in an old American or Japanese Childrens Cartoon. However this is how it works over in China. Also Chinese children are put under a lot of pressure to learn. We have to remember that their government and education system is not about being free and developing as they should, its about passing hard tests and not failing as a citizen of the country. Chinese children are taught for long hours and are lectured to and they are expected to know this. Our Education system is based on the children having a better development holistically and allowing them to cherish and grow. We don't necessarily call them a failure to Society because at age Ten they can't work out what 97x46 is. (Which is 4462 by the way)
The Department for Education NEED to stop coming up with stupid and ridiculous ways of bettering our education system. Instead of shipping over 60 random Maths teachers from Shanghai and coming up with a program thats only going to affect a small area of the country. How about they simply give the teachers what they want, more support and funding so they can support children struggling with Maths in their classrooms. There have been countless times I've seen teachers understand that they have children struggling with subjects and want to help them but just can't because the school can't afford to hire someone to come in even part time to assist them. The funding for Education has dropped over the recent years since the Coalition Government came to power. Do they really not expect some things to change?
Personally I am rather offended and annoyed that the Department for Education have basically said that our teaching isn't good enough so they are going to get someone else, from another country no less to do it for us. To me thats just going to piss teachers off and not provide any motivation anymore. Afterall if we're not doing it right, why should we when clearly the Chinese teachers can do it better? Oh, but maybe if they actually let us have the funding and support needed to actually do the job correctly?
So yeah. Thats basically it, I can't believe this is happening and to me the Department for Education is just coming up with yet more stupid and down right awful decisions. I feel sorry for the generation of children that have to go through this.
