Providing Good Quality English Education in Chinese Public Schools
Light at the end of the tunnel
Having worked as foreign English teacher in a few schools around China, I had become dissatisfied with the fact that most schools only hired foreign teachers for commercial and non-academic reasons. I was coming to the conclusion that China was not the place to be for a foreign teacher seeking professional development. However, my experience in Gongming Education of Shenzhen reversed my view of things. I was hired by the education department of the town and served in two public schools during my two years. These two schools provided me with my most rewarding professional teaching experience in a Chinese public school. They helped me see the bright side of education in Chinese public schools. One of these schools deserves special recognition for its efforts towards providing good quality English education in Chinese public a Chinese public school.
Overview of Tianliao Primary School
Tianliao Primary school, known in Chinese as Tianliao XiaoXue, is an exemplary Public school of Shenzhen, China. Most teachers of public schools in China face all the nightmares of teaching large classes. However, Tianliao Primary school has been able to provide high quality education to its students, against the odds. This small-sized Chinese primary school of about 700 students, is located in Gongming town, in the district of Bao' an, Shenzhen. Despite its limited budget, the school has managed to equip all its classrooms with modern state-of-the- art teaching equipment like computers, overhead projectors, school networking systems and best of the best P.A sound systems.
The administrative team, headed by the Principals, Mr. Fuh and Mrs. Zhong Yong hong greatly understands the value of good quality education for kids. The school administration is truly committed to providing the best for its 700 primary school children. In recent years, this small school has won some great trophies for Primary English education. In 2005, they won first prizes in the Bao'An district annual English speech and drama competitions of Shenzhen, competing against 45 major schools. Since July 2006, their English teaching team has been holding the highly coveted trophy of BEST ENGLISH TEACHING TEAM in Bao'an Primary English Education sector. They also won the first prizes consecutively for best collection of English teaching materials.
Why is this school successful?
The Principal:
The principal, Mr. Fuh does not understand much English, but he greatly appreciates the importance of English learning to the future of the students of China. He is a young, but very experienced principal who is always receptive to new great ideas. His travels in and out of China have resulted in lots of fresh inputs that have further strengthened his pedagogic team. Unlike some conservative principals in China, who regard English as a less important subject, Mr. Fuh has impressed on his teaching team, the necessity of learning English. He is a man of few words and more action. This explains why he is currently studying English himself. A few Chinese teachers have followed his example and are currently taking up English lessons themselves.
The Vice Principal
Mrs Zhong Yong Hong, is both vice principal and head of the English department of Tianliao Primary School. "Passionate" is the only word that comes close to describing her attitude towards teaching. This dynamic lady is always on the look out for ideas that would put her teaching team ahead. Mrs. Zhong has undertaken further studies on Teaching English as 2nd language at home and abroad. She has tested, adapted and created ideas for teaching English during her 15 year English teaching career that is greatly defying the odds of teaching large classes.
The Dean’s policy of balanced education
Mr. Ye, the dean of studies, is a man with over 16 years of pedagogic experience. As dean, he continues to offer his experience to the school with amazing results. His enormous contribution to teaching and studying in this school is greatly reflected in the students’ and teachers’ output. He has a profound understanding of teaching kids in a primary school.
Unlike other schools in China, where students are put into classrooms according to strange parameters like wealth and status, this practice is non-existent in Tianliao primary school. In China, there is also the practice of putting students into different classrooms according to categories like clever vs. dumb students. It is not uncommon for a teacher to teach one class of students with great ease and walk into another class of the same grade to find it almost impossible to teach. To most educators in Chinese public schools they think that separating classes according to so-called clever from dumb students is a way forward in teaching large classes.
What Mr. Ye understands is that in the long run such practices will only help to destroy both the strong and weak students. Strong students will most often overdevelop in one area of school life. What such schools don’t realize is the fact that school is not only a place for bookworms, but also an environment where students develop other skills and discover talents by interacting with classmates from all segments of society. But when parameters like rich vs. poor, clever vs. dumb come into play, the long term consequences can be devastating. For the so-called dumb students, they will never get to know their strengths because there are no classmates who are challenging enough.
Tianliao Primary school stands out as one of those public schools that is not into such practices. The results of its balanced educational system can be seen in the moral as well as academic performances of the students.
With such a great system in place, English language teaching in large classes is not as problematic as it is in other public schools. The so-called weak students soon become strong students in this balanced climate of study.
The Staff
Most of the teachers have a professional attitude towards teaching. There is a strong sense of commitment to duty here. On a normal school day, teachers can be seen in the staff rooms, designing and redesigning lesson plans for their students. This has led to a high level of teaching quality. The weekly teachers sharing meeting has provided great opportunities for teachers with weakness to improve. To most teachers, teaching in Tianliao Primary school is also a great chance for self-development. There are always experienced teachers who are ready to help. In the English department, this is even more evident as the students always come up with the best results in the town.
Students and discipline
Talk about polite and disciplined students, and then this school first comes to mind. Students are extremely respectful to their teachers. Discipline is instilled through a well-thought out points gaining and loosing system for classes. Anyone who has watched or read HARRY POTTER will easily see similarities in the methods of discipline. Good conduct is rewarded through a points system that adds up till the end of the term and vice versa. This disciplinary measure is so carefully implanted into the students’ minds at the beginning of each semester and constant reminders from head teachers and school authorities impresses on the students the seriousness of misconduct. Students watch each other, making sure no one steps out of the bounds of acceptable behaviors. In this endeavor, they not only score points for their teams, but they themselves learn a strong sense of responsibility quite early.
With discipline well in place, the way to academic excellence is also well paved in Tianliao Primary school. Problems like disruptive behaviors in large classes easily disappear. The students always seem to hunger for knowledge. Dedicated teachers spend hours after school, helping weaker kids. In extreme cases, parents are called in to help. Weekly meetings are arranged for parents and teachers to meet. The parents are educated on how best to help their kids and the teachers.
Giving to Caesar…
An old saying goes, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar”. This is the attitude of the school administration of Tianliao Primary school. Teachers and students are rewarded according to what they deserve.
For teachers, it sounds even better. Their hard work does not go unnoticed. At the end of the semester, teachers are given bonus payments based on the performances. This is judged by looking at the output of their students and other special considerations. With this highly attractive reward system, teachers are self-motivated to do their best.
When I was posted by my employer, Director Lu of Gongming Education Government to Tianliao primary school,in 2005, I had no idea, I was going to enjoy the teaching experience of a lifetime. As a teacher, who is always striving for excellence, this school provided me the necessary stimulation for growth and exercise of talent. The administration, staff and students gave me a hero’s welcome. In this extraordinary academic climate I buried myself into the job, always seeking ways to improve on and help the teachers. I had the responsibility of meeting English teachers twice a week for a teachers’ training course. I must admit it was not a typical teachers’ training course but a teachers’ sharing course. The staff had some great ideas that I quickly blended into mine. This helped me develop as well, while offering everything I knew about teaching to them. Although I no longer teach at this school, I feel happy coming back on my free days to offer any assistance.
Together we trained the team of students that won first prizes in the annual English drama competition. The kids of this school have since then been winners of many oral English competitions.
When I published my first two websites www.englishmedialab.com and www.esl-galaxy.com , the English department found them extremely useful. I set about building this kids websitewww.english-4kids.com thanks to the inspiration that still flows from Tianliao Primary school.
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