One child policy and early childhood education in South China

Part II “Observing ECE education in 8 provinces of South China”

NANCHANG, Jiangxi, China — Flight to Nanchang was delayed since our plane was caught in the snow blizzard from Tibet, a highland province of China. Overnight stay in the airport hotel required our getting up at four in the morning to catch the earliest flight the next morning. Our tight schedule could not dislocate the programs already set by the hosts months ahead with Mr. Jimmy Po, president and board vice chairman of the Chinese Montessori Foundation of Taipei, a non-profit educational organization. This included the formal induction ceremony of our hosts’ school into the Chinese Montessori Foundation where local government officials with educators, parents and media people were guests.

Parent-teacher forum at Nanchang University

Planes, train rides and first class hotel accommodations have been carefully pre-booked months ahead. Our Chinese Sta. Ana Montessori branch coordinator, Kathy Chua and one of our teacher trainors, Cecile Azurin accompanied me. Young lady receptionists and teachers would greet us “Huan ying” from an attractive green reception counter with the logo of the Chinese Montessori Foundation. The pictorial history of Dotoressa Maria Montessori are displayed on the adjacent walls. A magazine stand with articles for parents and the bimonthly Chinese Montessori Journals published by the Taipei Montessori Association helped answer the new parents and grandparents’ questions.

Nanchang is filled with historical sights associated with the Communist Party. Before holding the ECE forum at the Nanchang University, we were toured at the Teng Wang Pavilion, which features a very huge and elegant ancient architecture with a three-tiered pagoda tile roof. Our hosts, Mesdames Li Quiong and Ms. Wang are in-charge of the university preschool that would be inducted into the Chinese Montessori Foundation then.

Branded at first “capitalist roader” for offering commonsense corrective solution to the excesses Deng Xiaoping went on to become China’s leader. His economic reform carried his famous remark “to get rich is glorious.” From the mid ’70s Zhou Enlai (who groomed Deng Xiaoping as his successor) did much to restore balance and China found a seat in the United Nations in 1971.

The Nanchang University hall was filled with educators, students and parents. They were very eager to learn the Montessori psychology, which promotes the full potential of children from birth in contrast to the traditional pedagogy of educating children through memorization. The video presentation of how the Montessori system replicated itself yearly for 45 years producing the new Filipino children from infancy to adolescence intrigued them. At the moment China is not inclined to use the system beyond preschool. Hong Kong’s Ralph Yau and Daisy Lau talked about the “New Parenthood and the New Children.” The parents posed several questions on their role in transforming the home environ to condition their children to love work and order in lieu of mere play.

One fifth of humanity

Everyone knows that China is the most populous nation on earth. Even a richer country might despair when faced with the necessity to feed, house, clothe and educate one fifth of humanity. The official figure of the population now stands at 1. 328 billion. Half of the population is under 21 years of age. Translated in terms of total population of the planet, almost one person in every four is Chinese. For every 24 hours there are about 33,000 additional mouths to feed in China. In one year, China’s population increases more than enough to replace the whole population of vast metropolis of Tokyo or New York.

China’s official goal of 1.2 billion by the year 2000 has been surpassed. A vigorous campaign has been mounted based on the assumption that if 65 percent of the population under 30 agrees to limit their families to one child the objective can be achieved. Since the mid ’50s authorities have encouraged family planning through delayed marriages and distribution of free contraceptives, but these policies were not effectively implemented until the ’70s and then mainly in the cities.

Chinese experts said China could only support a population of 800 million. This is a major reason for the great emphasis China has placed on birth control. Thus the reward system for parents who raise only one child has guaranteed income bonus, more health care subsidy, better retirement pension as well as being given priority in housing allocation. Their only child also gets preferential consideration for day care enrollment and even future job allocation.

Yi-wu, Zhejiang, the one million store city

Yi-Wu is in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province and the site of the famous West Lake. We arrived here by the modern bullet train of China. Our hosts, smart and young Wu “Lemon” Yun Chao and Wang Yi Ding with partner Xion “Jeff” Xin Hua met us and billeted us at Minyan Hotel. Just below Shanghai, the weather here dipped towards zero degrees Centigrade. Lemon’s school is fully enrolled with 200 children attending once a week classes with their grandparents. Most of the six classrooms were playrooms with small seesaws, swings, and playblocks except one filled with Montessori apparata, which will serve to retrain the teachers in the Montessori system eventually.

Yi-Wu is a wholesale city divided into four districts. Each specializes in electronics, clothes, bags and suitcases and gift items. Lemon’s parents from Kenya, is a major trader of these goods that he regularly sends to Africa. These are the sources of merchandise that fill up the Chinese “168 stores” of the world for the goods bought in huge quantities are half priced. Lemon insisted on giving me a heavy black winter coat labeled “Cutie” to replace the spring coat I brought.

 The formal induction of the school into the Chinese Montessori Foundation in a public ceremony was met with jubilation that a Christmas buffet dinner show was held with parents and all their children. Lemon provided a lavish menu with winter hairy crabs, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. Both parents and teachers presented several creative song and dance numbers featuring Kung Fu demo, Old McDonald’s Farm dance in full costumes, Spanish flamenco, a Japanese umbrella dance etc.

Real face of Chinese education

The China Daily Editorial, December 10, 2010 stated, “...our heads should not be turned by the good results our teenagers collected from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).

“The program administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, found that Chinese teenagers were rather in advance of their peers from 64 countries and regions in terms of reading literacy, mathematics and science.

“But we should not become complacent. . . A global survey of teenagers worldwide in November ranked Chinese students at the bottom when it comes to applying creativity and imagination.

“China’s education stresses textbooks knowledge rather than fundamental understanding of subjects. Both teachers and parents look at education with an eye on fame and success. For them, a successful education means entering a prestigious school and getting high grades on tests, while neglecting the fact that education also plays a crucial role in nurturing a healthy and complete personality.”

The root cause of this is the failure to provide the ECE program during the first six years of life. Then the child’s personality and creativity naturally get stimulated to help the “child become.” UNESCO cites that the best ignition point of the 21st Century Education is Early Childhood Education.

(Next week: Chinese Education and the Confucius Philosophy)