Education Evolves with a New Generation of Students

Once upon a time a school institute, regardless of its year of establishment, would have begun by meeting the learning needs required by its pupils. One hundred years ago, in the post-Victorian era for example, British schools would have presented a simple daily timetable of Arithmetic, English dictation, and simple “drills”. The schools, then, did meet the perquisites of their society. Increasingly, recent decades witnessed a steady evolution within educational institutes, stretching from early years education to pre-university studies, with attempts to move with the modern times. No more so than now, due to fast paced globalization; education must move from a local to a global perspective.

In recognition of the changing world and unknown future, parents and educators should be asking vital questions, for example, “What is important and how is a child being prepared for a bright future?” Leading to questions such as, “How can a school graduate be prepared for this ever-changing world?”

Open any newspaper, cast your eye over any news website, business and economic documentaries on television – sure enough a repeated topic is China, China and the West, the West meets the East. Undoubtedly the world has never been as interconnected as it is today; finance, banking, global economics, inter-political relations, international security, manufacturing, media, business and marketing are constantly challenging the next level of success.

A school should take the responsibility towards each child’s preparation for life; provide the necessary steps towards personal development, communication, strong all-round knowledge, and high critical thinking skills. Yew Chung International Schools (YCIS), predominantly in Mainland China key cities and Hong Kong, are that bridge in through-train preparation. Deepening the core value of communication in the world’s main languages, all-round academic preparation, culture diversity appreciation, that are very much alive and flourishing in YCIS programmes for children aged 2 to 18.

The New York Times published an article entitled “East Meets West, But It Takes Some Practice” by Dan Levin. The author debated the topic of cultural training within work forces to spur on better business and working relationships between western parties dealing in China and vice versus. There is a high need for this. Equally both “sides” (China and the west) were encountering obstacles in the methods of work with damaging ramifications. Levin wrote, “…there are more than 10,000 Chinese companies operating abroad and more than 200,000 foreign companies in China — a landscape ripe for a clash of cultures that requires dexterity and clarity to overcome.”

Companies can pay huge fees to enlist their employees to attend cultural awareness programmes. In Levin’s article, Jim Leininger, (working for a global human resource consulting company) described how, to improve communication dynamics, Mr. Leininger set up “active listening” scenarios during training sessions for his clients to learn how to handle each culture’s reactions. He is not alone; consultancy companies are continually being called upon to prepare the generation of successful professionals who had no such inclusion during their schooling years. More likely is the fact that this training is needed by a generation of

top end professionals who were not privy to such opportunities provided by the YICS network today.

If our schools today need to be preparing our children for their surroundings, society and locality (as historically seen) surely this raises the question to which dimensions, which borders and what is their “locality”? Just how far will these children go in their adult working lives? With whom will they communicate? What challenges will they encounter? In due course each school pupil will discover his or her destiny and his or her potential; good schooling preparation is far superior to curing a problem later in adulthood.

An article published in Newsweek magazine in June 2010 focused on the changing world suddenly requiring a new type of professional, “As emerging markets take off, soft skills that were previously seen as gloss on the CV – adaptability, foreign language skills, ease in other cultures – have suddenly become part of the core Job Descriptions of top managers. We now need chief officers who are diplomats, know how to move across borders without alienating people….Companies now speak of the ideal manager as the perfect combination of East and West.”

YCIS students (annually received by top Universities around the world) are submerged in a bi-lingual learning environment – Mandarin and English. Language is the perfect tool for adopting shared thinking skills, mannerisms and profound understanding between different people and interpersonal behaviour. The result is evident in the children of “tomorrow” with their fluidity of communication and cultural awareness. YCIS students are breaking down frontiers. With added Character Development classes, intercultural appreciation and respect for all diversities have never before been at such a pivotal position in the preparation for a child heading towards his or her future society and surroundings.

The globally prepared YCIS graduate will already have key accomplishments on their resume to be reviewed by prospective employers. Regardless of field of work, not one line of trade, business or communication will remain untouched by global dynamics; we are encountering this phenomenon more and more. Very little remains limited to local consumption these days. Education cannot remain local either. Education today for tomorrow’s workforce must be global - whilst instilling western and eastern bridges as a person’s second nature. Easy, fluid and natural – for a YCIS graduate, cultural awareness workshops will not be a necessary burden for his or her future employer.