According to the British Guardian website reported on March 20th, China's wealthy cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, have produced some of the world's best primary school students in mathematics, while the ranking of British students lags far behind that of their Asian peers.
According to China media reports, the education department of Harper Collins Company signed an agreement to issue a set of 36 kinds of mathematics books at the London Book Fair. Colin Hughes, general manager of Collins Learning Press, called the agreement "historic". Hughes said: "As far as I know, this is something that has never happened in history-textbooks written for China students will be translated word for word and sold to British schools."
Hughes also said that this textbook agreement is part of a broader cooperation between Britain and China, and the British government hopes to strengthen the performance of British students in mathematics.
According to a recent global survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), schools in China, represented by those in richer cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Jiangsu, rank fifth in mathematics. British schools are far behind in math, tied for 27th place with Portugal and Czech Republic.
The report also points out that students with 1/4 in Chinese mainland, like Singapore, Hongkong and Taiwan Province Province, have the highest math scores, which is higher than anywhere else.
According to the report, experts worry that textbooks alone cannot solve the math problems in Britain, saying that the basic situation of the education system is too different. Xiong Bingqi, an education expert at Shanghai Jiaotong University and vice president of the 2 1 Century Professor Research Institute, said: "The education evaluation systems in Britain and China are completely different. In terms of compulsory courses, China schools adopt high standards and unified requirements, because most China students need to take the college entrance examination, so mathematics (for British students) will be too difficult. "
He said: "The British education system puts too much emphasis on individuality, thus ignoring the collective problem."