Nicholas Eberstadt, Patrick Norrick, Radek Sabatka & Peter Van Ness
Introduction
In this study, we analyze evidence on the performance and capabilities of the cohort of young Chinese in primary and secondary schooling. It is a huge population: nearly 300 million boys and girls under the age of 18 live in China today, and something like 180 million of them are 6-15 year olds, for whom the PRC’s nine years of schooling is obligatory.
The training, scholastic preparation, and academic achievement of this rising generation will bear directly on China’s future economically, and indirectly on Beijing’s strategic options and possibilities. To go by internationally standardized tests of achievement for pupils from this age group, China would look to be very favorably positioned indeed.
According to successive rounds of global testing in reading, mathematics and science, pupils from China are Number One in the world—and across the board. These stunning, but recurrent, findings come from PISA, the Programme for International Student Assessment (conducted under the aegis of the OECD, or Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) and tests 15 year olds from over 100 countries, places and sub-territories. 3 In the most recent round of PISA testing in which it participated, China pupils came in first in all three subjects among the nearly 80 participating countries and economies. 4 China’s tested students outperformed counterparts in famously high-performing Singapore in every field, and left Estonia, PISA’s top non-Asian performer, even further behind
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