The article below appeared in Sunday's Star newspaper, Education pullout. It's about schools in China, but it applies to schools in Malaysia too!
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China wants its youngsters to get their creative juices flowing instead of blindly memorising facts.
CHINESE schools have to get their students to be creative and think for themselves, instead of expecting them to only memorise facts and figures.
Its Premier Wen Jiabao has said that rote-learning which is deeply ingrained in the national education system, should be replaced with other methods of learning where students will begin to think and analyse.
Students in China perform well in exams and tests in which they are required to memorise answers, but rate less well in creativity and critical thinking, hampering the country’s ambitions to move its economy up the value chain.
Quoting Nobel prize winner Albert Einstein Einstein, Wen said imagination was more powerful than knowledge.
“Students don’t only need knowledge, they have to learn how to act and use their brains,” Wen said. The scientistis had also written that the spirit of learning and creative thought were lost in strict rote learning.
“We must encourage students to think independently, freely express themselves, get them to believe in themselves, protect and stimulate their imagination and creativity,” Wen said.
Other countries in Asia, including Singapore and Japan, have struggled to address similar problems in education systems which stress exam results and conformity.
China’s ruling Communist Party keeps a tight grip on what can be taught in schools and allows no dissent on sensitive subjects.
Wen did not suggest how schools were supposed to alter their teaching methods to encourage freer thinking, but said that education reform was vital for the country to develop and prosper. — Reuters
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