Our Desk | Only good before 18

Julie Zhu

For the sixth time, Macau participated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), whereby the effectiveness of basic education for all 15-year-old secondary students in the MSAR was examined.

Macau ranked sixth in Scientific Literacy, 12th in Reading Literacy, and third in mathematical literacy.

According to the official report by the OECD, more than one in four students in Beijing-
Shanghai-Jiangsu-Guangdong (China), Hong Kong, Singapore and Chinese Taipei are top-performing students in mathematics, a higher share than anywhere else in the world.

If we take a look at a map presented on the OCED’s website, mainland China, Canada, Estonia, Hong Kong, Finland, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore are the greenest (the best) regions, which indicates that students in these regions have attained the best performance in mathematics across the entire planet.

Should this figure make the community in this specific region proud for its intelligence and educational accomplishments?

Now take a look at several awards for mathematicians, such as the International Medals for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, Wolf Prize in Mathematics, Abel Prize, or even the celebrated Fields Medal and notice how difficult it is for us to find one mathematician coming from the greater China region.

Most noticeably, in the case of the Fields Medal, the only recipient of the prestigious award born in China was not even affiliated with a Chinese university.

It is important to stress that scientific awards are completely trustworthy, as opposed to prizes for ‘humanitarian causes,’ for which some might argue that these prizes only exist to honour a cultural preference or appreciation.

In other words, mathematics is a universal language that knows no barriers, whereby it is easier to reward major contributions regardless of their origins.

Even when we find some Chinese mathematician award-holders, they normally have strong educational backgrounds built outside China.

Hence, a question arises: what has made students from the greater China great at math at an early age, but then vanish from the math world, or related worlds, at an older age?

Many opinions stress that Chinese students use root memorization and repetition-based techniques while studying. This is completely true in regards to my personal experience and that of any individual student from Macau and mainland China that I personally know.

This is an opinion that has been repeated over and over again whenever a similar topic is brought to the table for discussion, having already come out almost everyone’s mouth.

We make memorization and repetition sound like a poor learning method. But it is definitely not, and it is definitely not what makes Chinese students less creative.

This problem has become such a long-term headache in the Chinese community that many teachers, parents, and others keep reviewing and rethinking education.

However, they still fail to understand why their students were so good at school when they were young and then become less adept when they grow older.

Maybe it is just a coincidence, or maybe all of the potential is worn out by several years of continuous and intense studying that discourages students to further their studies in a subject that has been a constant source of nightmares.

Maybe set them free and allow them to try what is not lectured by teachers or written in the textbooks.