Myth Or Reality? Assessing the Validity of the Asian Model of Education (Features‪)‬

It was not long ago that Asian countries were considered poor and under developed. Even Japan, a G8 country and well-established OECD member, was viewed as a struggling nation that produced products of questionable quality after the devastation of World War II. Economists often credit the phenomenal continued growth and development of these countries to the quality of their human resources, the talented and hard-working students and graduates of their educational systems, and the specific nature of those systems. These societies achieved universal primary and secondary education long ago and are now entering the era of massification of their tertiary sectors. It should be noted at the outset that Asia covers a broad regional footprint--one that includes some of the poorest nations on earth. In this article, Asian will refer to primarily the traditional Confucian societies of China (including Hong Kong), Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, although many of the points made below apply to other parts of Asia as well, such as Vietnam, Thailand, and India. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]