East Asia outperforms West in education
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By Dr. Chris Baumann
The shortcoming of the current budget debates in Western countries is that they overlook the association between public spending for education and welfare in contrast to academic achievement.
Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. are reducing spending on the tertiary sector with implications on student recruitment and future research output. At the same time, Western countries often spend nearly half of their overall budget on social welfare.
East Asia, in contrast, spends more on education than the West, resulting in educational peak performance, and has substantially lower social welfare costs. What can the West learn from the East Asian approach?
East Asian nations such as China, South Korea and Singapore spend approximately 15-16 percent of their overall government expenses on education, although in realty, investment into education is higher when private tutoring expenses are included.
In contrast, Western countries such as Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. spend less, between 11 and 14 percent. Western countries are somewhat frugal with their education expenses in comparison to what East Asia spends on education, and in comparison to their own high social welfare costs, approaching 50 percent of overall expenses.
Substantial entitlements for citizens have resulted in generous welfare payments and the establishment of extensive social programs. East Asia, in contrast, spends 31-38 percent on social welfare, reflecting a Confucian society with strong performance orientation.
East Asia’s focus on performance in society and education with that high spending on education has resulted in peak academic performance. In the OECD’s international student testing (PISA), the East Asian cluster outperforms the West. China surprised the world with the highest PISA results in 2009, followed by Singapore and South Korea.
Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. lag behind East Asia on all dimensions of PISA testing such as reading, science and math.
East Asia’s dedication to education and subsequent allocation of public funds for educational purposes, coupled with their striving Confucian approach, has now surpassed Western educational performance.
East Asian schools instill performance orientation and competitiveness, and through character building, create a globally competitive workforce. In contrast, and at the risk of oversimplification, Western education generally subscribes to a different philosophy, one of permissive education.
The resulting workforce may consequently have different characteristics and levels of global competitiveness in comparison to East Asia’s. On a worldwide scale, global brands often recruit from the competitive Asian labor markets rather than the traditional Western markets.
Youth unemployment in some European countries has also reached 50 percent, and ultimately, some Western markets may need to rethink their approach to education as well as economic structures in order to regain global competitiveness.
High educational academic achievement such as in East Asia ultimately results in a globally competitive workforce that is less dependent on government support. China, Korea and Singapore each have positioned themselves as economic powerhouses in their own right.
China is the “world’s manufacturer” that now also establishes its own global brands such as Great Wall cars or Gilly; Korea offers leading consumer electronics (Samsung, LG), innovative cars (Hyundai, Kia) and also entertainment (the Korean wave, or hallyu, such as Psy with his “Gangnam Style” video); and Singapore is a tiny but powerful regional hub for transportation (Singapore Airlines), finance and education.
Western economies increasingly struggle to maintain manufacturing and services in their home turf; products may still carry Western brands, but are long made in the Asian region (e.g. Apple devices made in China).
Services too are strong in East Asia with award winning services (hotels, entertainment, and transportation such as award winning airlines) and education.
In the old days, Asians flogged to the West for schooling and tertiary studies, but nowadays, some of their own universities are positioned equal ― if not higher than ― many Western institutions.
Korea with a population of 50 million hosts three of the world’s leading universities, and the city-state of Singapore hosts thereof two; China three. With East Asian governments’ clear focus on education, an increase of East Asian institutions in the world’s university ranking can also be expected.
Top universities in East Asia are positioned as “elite” institutions, attracting only leading scholars and students, whereas some Western institutions may face pressure to relax standards due to economic pressures.
At the end of the day, it may come as a surprise that Western countries often critically debate education expenses, but have little hesitation to spend half of government budgets on social welfare.
Resources are limited by definition, and in the final conclusion, perhaps the West may need to consider a reallocation of funds out of the generous social welfare systems into the education sector to regain global competitiveness longer term. This would pave the path for their next generations to focus on career development, not having to rely on welfare systems with little future perspectives.
Dr Chris Baumann is a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. His research includes customer loyalty, competitiveness in education and society, ethnic marketing, and East Asia (China and Korea). He is a visiting professor at Seoul National University (SNU) in South Korea and at Aarhus University in Denmark.