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Sunday, June 26, 2005 |
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Giving our School Children Skills (tidbits) I attend a lot of seminars and events, and am also a frequent speaker. At a most recent conference on the state of IT education in our country, I heard a gem of a thought that got me thinking. According to the speaker, Fr Jomar Legaspi of Learn .PH Foundation ( a foundation funded by Microsoft to bridge the digital divide) about 30% only of the students in our public high schools go to college. That means 70% of those drop off and therefore will have to rely on what they have learned thus far to get a decent job and earn a living. And yet, everything in our high school curriculum now is geared towards equipping the person to tackle college. It consists of a lot of subjects like math, reading, sciences and the like, while not emphasizing the acquisition of practical skills. There is a separate agency that you could enroll afterwards if you drop out, and could not proceed to college. He ardently asks why the practical skills have to be taught outside of school inside of when the person is still in school? I am taking this up because I am convinced that in many countries, this is the same scenario, and there may be a need to do some educational reform to insure that people in developing countries who don't have a ghost of a chance of ever entering college can acquire the skills that he needs in the first few years in school to be a productive citizen of his country. I would welcome any comments.
9:59:46 AM  comment [] trackback []
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More Statistics on China (tidbits) Added to my previous compilation comparisons of China and the US, here are some more Chinese statistics from Time Magazine that might be of interest. ( currency in US dollars)
Communist party officials disciplined for corruption in 2004: 170,850 Percentage of counterfeit seized in the US that is of Chinese origin: 66% World ranking in terms of automobile deaths: no. 1 Percentage of Urban Chinese with college education: 5.6% in rural areas: 0.2% Estimated rural chinese that have never brushed their teeth: 500 million Estimated number of smokers 350 million Number of skyscrapers in Shanghai in 1985: 1. Number in 2004: 300+ Population in Shenzhen in 1980: 50 thousand. In 1990: 1.67 million. In 2005: 12 million Retail sales: in 1996, 250 billion; In 2004 over 600 billion Total Exports: in 1999: over 200 billion; In 2004 over 550 billion Direct foreign investment: in 1999: 40 billion; In 2004 over 60 billion Car ownership: in 1999 about 10 million; In 2004: over 25 million
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Last update: 7/5/2005; 5:50:55 PM .
