The country is moving away from a rigid “Soviet-style education system.” Educators are breaking free of government regulations, giving parents more options and learning to experiment with new approaches to instruction. They’re learning to become entrepreneurs, leading networks of innovative schools.
That’s what’s starting to happen in China, according to an NPR story from earlier this month (which we missed initially; hat tip Eduwonk).
From Confucian-style academies and home schooling to foreign Waldorf and Montessori models, a grassroots, alternative education movement is blossoming across China at the secondary level. Universities and colleges, meanwhile, remain under tighter government control.
Education professionals are hopeful that these new teaching methods will benefit both public and private school students and produce future generations of Chinese young people who are curious, self-motivated and independent critical thinkers.
China isn’t the only country moving toward a new definition of public education. Low-cost private schools educate large numbers of poor and rural students across Asia and Africa. Some European countries have offered universal school choice for generations; many go further than the United States in embracing at least some forms of educational freedom.
Viewed from a global perspective, America’s proliferation of private school choice, privately run public charter schools, and other forms of education outside the exclusive purview of local government entities doesn’t seem all that radical.
