In China, Nicholas studied maths 20 hours a week. In Australia it's three
When he was at boarding school in China, Nicholas Zhang, 16, would wake up at 6.30am.
Nicholas estimates he studied maths alone for 20 hours a week in China. Since starting his exchange at Scotch College, Melbourne, at the start of this year, that has dropped to three or four hours.The triennial Programme for International Student Assessment released on Tuesday shows that in mathematics the average Australian student lags more than 3½ years behind their Chinese counterparts and three years behind Singapore.
Maria Lin, 16, moved from Singapore to Adelaide in 2016 when she was 13. After one term of year 8, she was bored, so skipped two years ahead and this year graduated from year 12.She said content was taught faster in Singapore – in year 7 she learnt physics that came up in year 11 in Australia – and students were left to find solutions more independently.
Dr Thomson cautioned that aspects of the east Asian school system would not be a good fit in Australia. Australia has dropped the equivalent of one year in mathematics since 2003, and is now sitting just above the OECD average.
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