Countries that have world class education Essays - Education

Countries that have world class education A few countries have been listed down to be on top 100 for their world class universities such as in United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Japan. According to Vivien Stewart in her book, A world Class Education, looks at five countries which are Singapore, Canada, Finland, China and Australia where students are significantly better on global assessments than students in the U.S. Despite differences in the political systems and cultural contexts of these countries, there are some common policies and practices that drive success. Singapore Singapore decided that its future lay in tapping its human capital. In the Singapore system, all the key elements work closely together to produce continuous improvement. Over the last decade, Singapore has introduced innovative and flexible learning choices for students. It even has a policy called "teach less, learn more" that's designed to encourage more innovative curricula and use of classroom time. Singapore also is investing significantly in teacherswith strong teacher evaluation and personnel systems and intensive training. With all this, it's not really a surprise that Singapore's students rank near the top in international assessments, or that its per capita GDP is higher than the U.S., Canada, or most countries in Europe. Finland Finland is an interesting example because as recently as 1970, only 40 percent of Finnish adults held a high school diploma. Today, its students rank among the top on global assessments of student learning.One key to Finland's success was the decision in 1979 to require a two-year master's degree for all teachers, even those teaching primary school. Teachers are trained to spot students who aren't doing well early on, and each school has a multidisciplinary team of education professionals available to support students and help them catch up. Finland also did away with traditional structure and replaced it with a more flexible approach that encourages creativity and problem solving, individualized learning, and a wider range of academic and vocational options. EducationinFinlandis an education system with notuition feesand with fully subsidised meals served to full-time students. The Finnish strategy for achieving equality and excellence in education has been based on constr ucting a publicly fundedcomprehensive schoolsystem without selecting, tracking, or streaming students during their common basic education.Part of the strategy has been to spread the school network so that pupils have a school near their homes whenever possible or, if this is not feasible, e.g. in rural areas, to provide free transportation to more widely dispersed schools. Inclusive special education within the classroom and instructional efforts to minimize low achievement are also typical of Nordic educational systems. Chinese The degree to which Chinese higher education has maintained some institutional diversity is quite remarkable, in spite of pressures to conform to the model of a global research university. Chinese higher education has been reshaped in the massification process towards a highly hierarchical system, with substantive priority funding given to the top 100 institutions in Project 211, initiated in 1993. Chinese universities are better funded than they have ever been, they are filled with academics with more opportunities to travel and study abroad with many being returnees from overseas degree courses. The Chinese tertiary level system now takes a higher proportion of the population than ever before. Research and development funding has risen exponentially under the central government's strategy of supporting innovation financially in the last decade. The campuses of Chinese universities are some of the most spectacular in the world, with excellent facilities and vastly impr oved libraries and laboratories. The onset of the Internet means that textbooks and information are now widely available electronically, and access to knowledge has been democratized. Australia While Australia has a long and proud tradition of world class research and development that has benefited millions around the world. From the discovery of penicillin in 1945 and the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance in 1960, through to observations which led to the discovery of the accelerating Universe in 2011. Australia has a proud record of contributing to the benefits of the world; through the Backing Australia's Ability initiative, A$2.9 billion will be invested over the next five years to fund research that will stimulate economic and scientific innovation. Australia is also investing over A$140