gli esami in Cina - gz
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By: GZ on Lunedì 24 Settembre 2007 02:01
il miglior blog sui cambi è quello secondo me di Brad Setser, il socio di Nouriel Roubini, su cui poi partecipano alla discussione molti piuttosto bravi e questa settimana Setser è sostituito da Michael Pettis che insegna ora Finanza all'università di Pechino, la numero uno in Cina
dice che secondo lui il mercato toro globale continua ancora perchè la ^Cina e gli altri Emergenti e Opec riciclano tutto il deficit occidentale sulle borse e non smetteranno#http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/setser/216420/^ fino a quando proprio non diventa totalmente impossibile, cioè spingeranno a testa bassa ancora anche se ^stanno costruendo e costruendo alla cieca#http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/28/world/main3213263.shtml^ fabbriche, condomini e centri commerciali
Inoltre è interessante alla luce degli esami di ammissione a medicina italiani comprati ovunque e il fatto che le facoltà scientifiche sono semivuote l'approccio dei cinesi, i quali stanno a scuola dalle 7:30 all 11 di sera, studiano solo cose tecnico-scientifiche, quando danno gli esami si muovono intere famiglie a supporto perchè è questione di vita o di morte e le autorità sospendono persino i lavori di costruzione nella zona per paura di disturbarli
dice che studiano talmente tanto che uno studente laureato o un dottorato cinese sembra come personalità un ragazzo di 14 anni perchè non è mai uscito di casa se non per andare a lezione
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MICHAEL PETTIS: I spent last August volunteering to teach English at one of the leading schools in Shanxi province, and even though it was the summer holidays, the students came into school at 7.30 every morning and didn't leave until 11 o'clock at night, six days a week.
JOHN TAYLOR: There's little free time for sport, romance, or fun, for those children wanting to go to university.
One of the strange aspects of China is how immature, even naive, many university graduates can be. It's like they're still a teenager. But people the same age who didn't go to university often seem much older than they are.
Last week's university entrance exam was big news in China.
Pictures were published of anxious parents gathered outside testing halls. Nearby hotels were booked out by some parents wanting their child to rest in comfort during lunch breaks, and not to have to endure lengthy journeys home at night.
Some governments even forbid open-air karaoke and urged some construction sites to halt, so as not to distract students.
Professor Pettis, though, is critical China's education system, and the entrance exam.
MICHAEL PETTIS: It's fair in the sense that it's a pretty straightforward exam in which there is little opportunity for influence or wealth directly to impact it.
There are a number of things that are unfair about it. One is there is a provincial quota system, so different provinces have very different quotas, and if you look at sort of a quota to population measure it is far, far easier to get into the top universities if you are from Beijing or Shanghai.
JOHN TAYLOR: But his major criticism is that the national exam is a very limited way of judging the calibre of students.
MICHAEL PETTIS: Many professors in, or many teachers, in middle schools and the high schools in which the students come out, have told me what I think is probably intuitively reasonable, and that is that the way to do well on the exam is basically memorise, memorise, memorise.
Questioning anything the teacher says is a complete waste of time. Doing any sort of additional reading or research out of interest is a complete waste of time. The only thing that matters is what's on the exam and what is considered the correct answer for that exam.
JOHN TAYLOR: Professor Pettis says that approach means that many students who should be embraced by universities aren't.
MICHAEL PETTIS: I think a lot of extremely bright, extremely imaginative students are excluded from the top universities because their minds might not necessarily work in that way. And in addition, other students who may be fairly imaginative have it sort of ground out of them.
JOHN TAYLOR: All this is not to say that China's universities are filled with robot-like dummies.
MICHAEL PETTIS: I've taught at both Tsinghua and Peking University, and those are easily recognised as the top two universities in the country. And my guess, from having taught and lectured at a number of schools in Europe and the United States, is that student for student, on average, they probably have the most intelligent student bodies in the world, which makes it all the more depressing that they're doing such a bad job of selecting and teaching this quality of student.
JOHN TAYLOR: What does this then mean for China? Does it really matter?
Professor Pettis believes it's holding China back.
MICHAEL PETTIS: China is at the stage where there's a lot expectations that it'll become a major science and technology and cultural centre, a great sort of creative force.
But unless they radically change the educational system I just don't see any chance of that happening. The educational system weeds out the most creative individuals, or grinds it out.
HAMISH ROBERTSON: Professor Michael Pettis from China's Peking University, speaking to our China Correspondent, John Taylor.
