Page 65 - EducationWorld Aug 2020 Flipbuilder

riculums. Or they can try to improve the quality of their
instruction. The greatest success will probably come from
a combination of all three strategies.
Some countries have tinkered with timetables. Singapore
pulled forward its month-long annual recess — usually in
June — to May, when the country’s lockdown was already
keeping schools shut. In some parts of Vietnam, schools
have crunched the usual three-month break down to a few
weeks.
Squeezing curriculums to create more time for the most
important subjects is less painful than it sounds. Andreas
Schleicher of the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries,
says that politicians have long found it easy to add fashion-
able new topics but more difficult to take things away. As a
result, he continues, syllabuses have become “a mile wide
but only an inch deep”. Chinese students in the US: fraught geopolitical situation
Experts are most enthusiastic about using tutors to help
children catch up. The British government has put aside caught up in an increasingly fraught geopolitical situation.
£350 million (Rs.3,395 crore) to launch a national tutoring In early June, the Chinese government cited “many dis-
programme in September. Schools can use existing organ- criminatory incidents against Asians” in its warning against
isations or hire graduates who would work full time. They study in Australia, a country with which it is also embroiled
can top this up with money from another pot of £650 mil- in trade and political disputes. In April, Beijing blocked its
lion that schools can use for any remediation strategies they graduates from applying to universities in Taiwan, because
deem helpful. The Dutch government has earmarked €244 of Covid-19 fears and what it called the “current relation-
million (Rs.2,147 crore) for a similar programme. It plans ship”, a common way of referring to strained relations.
to enlist trainee teachers to help bring struggling learners China is not the only one engaging in sabre-rattling. The
up to scratch. US has threatened to expel thousands of Chinese scholars
Ultimately no child will learn anything “unless they feel tied to military-linked universities and, most recently,
psychologically and emotionally safe”, says Pasi Sahlberg blocked the Harbin Institute of Technology from access to
of the University of New South Wales in Australia. When critical engineering software and US partnerships, the Nik-
schools reopen, he reckons, they will need to provide chil- kei Asian Review reported on June 17.
dren with counselling and time to play as they adjust to So with the pandemic looking likely to leave China in a
their return. Tute Porter-Samuels, a primary-school teacher stronger world position having weathered the medical — and
in New Zealand, says that when her school in Wellington thus economic — impacts better than most nations, what do
reopened it devoted two weeks to music and art. these geopolitics mean for the flows of Chinese students so
Distance-learning, despite its glitches, has made teach- crucial to so many Western university systems? Could the
ers more familiar with technology. Recessions may force Chinese government ever follow through on threats to use
governments to trim school budgets but they may also get its students as weapons in its broader conflicts?
some new blood into the teaching profession. In Britain ap- Zhiqun Zhu, chair of the department of international
plications to teacher-training programmes surged in May relations at Bucknell University in the US and inaugural
and June. A recent study found that teachers in Florida who director of its China Institute, told Times Higher Education
started their careers in downturns are better at raising test that “when relations between China and other countries go
scores than those who did not. Schools will need all the help sour, these students often suffer at both ends. China may
they can get. use them as a bargaining chip to achieve diplomatic goals,
while foreign countries may not welcome some of them and
CHINA accuse them of spying for the Chinese government”.
Student bargaining chips Chinese students heading overseas, which has more than
These tensions come amid a boom in the number of
CHINA HAS TAKEN A MUCH MORE ASSERTIVE doubled in a decade. In the academic year 2018-19, before
— some would say aggressive — global position in the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 370,000 Chinese stu-
recent months as it defends itself against criticism dents in the US, 160,000 in Australia, 141,000 in Canada
on a host of issues, from the handling of the initial corona- and 120,000 in the UK, according to figures from those
virus outbreak to scrutiny of its technology companies and countries.
research ties. Stuck in the middle are its students, who may Western universities have become financially depen-
be eager to seek new experiences overseas, but may also be dent on tuition paid by Chinese students, sharpening the

AUGUST 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 65