Put a child of cleaner from Shanghai or Singapore up against the scion of the western elite in a standardised test and guess who will come out top? According to the latest research, the western kids will trail their Asian counterparts by the equivilant of a whole school year. This prompted another bout of anxiety of a kind that has become increasingly common since 2001, when the global Pisa survey of educational attainment was first published. Parents once drew comfort from steady improvements in school-leaving grades in places such as the UK. Confronted with evidence of how their children’s accomplishments compared to those of students in faraway places, many westerners have taken fright.
在上海或新加坡找一個清潔工的孩子，讓他跟西方精英階層的子女一起參加標準化考試，猜猜誰會勝出呢？根據最新調查結果，西方小孩與亞洲同齡人的差距相當于落后了整整一個年級。自從國際學生評估項目(Pisa)在2001年首次發布全球教育水平調查報告以來，西方家長越來越普遍地感到焦慮，而最新調查結果無異火上澆油。在英國等國家，以前家長們只要看到學校畢業生成績逐年提高就滿意了。但當他們看到自己的孩子與地球另一端學生的成績相比較的結果時，許多西方人都大吃一驚。