Culture versus Education System (Part 2 - Finland Phenomenon)

FINLAND PHENOMENON

The other country that I will discuss as a comparation to Taiwan is Finland. Maybe some questions start to come up on this part. Why should compare Taiwan, a small East-Asian country, to Finland, the 7th largest country in Europe which geographically very close to the north pole?

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-member nation of 15-year-old students performance on mathematic, science, and reading. The programme starts in 2000 and repeated every three years. Since it starts, Finland consistently secure it's position in the list of top performer countries and Taiwan rapidly catch-up since 2006, though both have their own strengh. Based on 2006 and 2009  PISA result, Taiwan most excel (gain 1st rank in 2006) and overpower Finland in mathematic, while Finland most excel (gain 1st rank in 2006) and overpower Taiwan in science. As for reading subject, Finland consistently score higher, leaving Taiwan behind.

Before the discussion of score and rank going too far, I must put it clear beforehand that actually I don't see a successful education system is worth assessed only by any series of limited subject test, include PISA. Successful education system must enable it's participant to contribute to the real society such as, but not limited to, economic growth & technology development in Taiwan case. Those contributions must be able to seen from the ability of a society, or a country in a wider scope, to be highly independent, stand-alone, rely on it's own resources to face the world challenges. It could be in a form of economic power, technological advancement, sport achievement, cultural heritage, etc or a combination of all those aspects depends on the country strategy to develop a highly proud nation. High international test score and university rank without real impact to the society is only a proof of disintegrated education strategy imposed by the ruling party, or government.

The reason why PISA result used to explain Finland phenomenon is because the international sudden attention toward it's education system after the very first PISA result in 2000 successfully placed Finland in top five among all three subjects, 4th in mathematic, 3rd in science, and 1st in reading. However, I will not exaggerately consider this fact as the greatest achievement since actually those PISA top performer list from year to year still also significantly dominated by Asian country such as Japan, South-Korea, China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Singapore. An interesting pattern shows here that from seven PISA top performer countries from Asia, six of them are East-Asian countries where the Confucian teaching is widely spread and adopted. Based on June 2012 data, Singapore major population is Chinese with percentage of 74.2%. With the widely known fact on how most of chinese society always put an effort to hold on their cultural values despite of where they live, I believe at least 74.2% of Singaporean is an confucianism aware society.

Then, besides of high PISA result achievement, what's another interesting fact from Finland? Here is the list:

1. Finland as the 16th freest economy in the world (7th in Europe) based in Economic Freedom Score 2013 which is derived from four main variable, Rule of Law, Limited Government, Regulatory Efficiency, and Open Market.
2. Finland rank 11th for Ease Doing Business rating 2013.
3. Finland is the 1st in the 2013 Network Readiness Index (NRI) based on World Economic Forum (WEF). The index measures the capacity of different economies to leverage ICT (Information and Communication Technology) for growth and well-being.
4. The international rating agency, Fitch Ratings, has affirmed the long-term credit rating AAA for Finland, with a stable outlook.
5. Finland top university, University of Helsinki, rank 91th based on The Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2012-2013.
6. Notable companies in Finland includes Nokia, the former market leader in mobile phone, and Rovio Mobile with it's widely popular games Angry Bird.
7. The inventor of Linux, Linus Torvalds, is a Finnish.

Historically from 1100-1200, Finland land was incorporated by Sweden and then, Russian. War and conflict (we call it Russo-Swedish conflict) due to both territory and culture clash keep occurs in the region until 19th century when feeling of nationalism began to emerge throughout Europe, include Finland. One famous quote as an expression of Finnish identity by Adolf Ivar Arwidsson (1791-1858), Finnish political journalist, writer, and historian, is 'Swedes we are not (no longer), Russians we do not want to become, let us therefore be (become) Finns.' The growth of national identity & culture feeling has lead Finland to declare it's independence in 1917. Finland once faced short period civil war (January-May 1918) after it's independence. The civil war occur between white guards (anti-socialist who continuously seek full independency from Soviet Union influence) and red guards (socialist who gradually view Soviet Union as an example to follow) and ended with white guards victory. Finland manage to survive World War II and maintain it's independent status which is, unlike Taiwan, fully acknowledged by international community.

The most well-known characteristic of Finnish nowadays is that they always put considerable weight on their words. They pick words carefully to express their feelings & opinions toward the others. They don't value small talk just to open or keep an ongoing conversation. A silence in the middle of a conversation is considered better than a small meaningless talk. Silence is also part of a conversation and they will not feel awkward about it. We can't say a 'just to say' promise such as, "We must have a dinner together sometimes," without really intend to do it. They will take it seriously and wait for your dinner invitation to come. However, don't misunderstand Finnish as an extremely serious people due to this characteristic. In fact, they are just a fun community, as we can see from their widely embraced sauna culture, who highly value accountability and honesty in their words. For Finnish, learning to bathe in a sauna comes as naturally as learning to speak. Finnish also embrace extreme modesty in their daily life. They will not boast their own achievement and sometimes they even will never mention it. Being realist, Finnish doesn't expect foreigners to  know a lot about their country. They will be pleased if a visitor is familiar with at least some of the milestones of Finnish history, culture, sports achievement, etc. They are aware that Nokia is often mistakenly thought to be a Japanese company and this misconception is viewed forgivingly but with pity.

(To be continued)

Source:
http://pisa.nutn.edu.tw/link_rank_en.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Singapore
http://www.investinfinland.fi/articles/news/finnish-economy-and-business-environment/fitch-affirms-finlands-aaa-credit-rating/88-915
http://www.investinfinland.fi/articles/news/finnish-economy-and-business-environment/finland-tops-networked-readiness-index/88-902
http://finland.fi/Public/default.aspx?contentid=160036
http://finland.fi/Public/default.aspx?contentid=160064&nodeid=41800

Culture versus Education System (Part 1 - Taiwan Facts)

The basic question to start the discussion on this topic is how's a successful education system will looks like? What must be emphasised? Is it supposed to be the one with majestic school or campus buildings? Does it has anything to do with expensive tuition fees? Are the high rank education institutions always share the common curriculum and evaluation system which enable them to gain their current prestigious position? Whether it is because all the factors I've mentioned above or due to the other still undiscovered factors, I also can't guarantee an answer since I'm not an education expert. However, to be able to conduct a research related to this subject I consider must be very tempting.

What I would like to share now is purely my opinion by comparing education system in two countries. The one is Taiwan, a country in which I plan to continue my study, while the other one is a country which I believe will represents a very different education system with the previous one. The comparation will not blindly only based on the country education system as it's visible on the surface. I'll try to dig deeper into the cultural root that the country inherits since I believe that every human action is a manifestation of their mind which is formed by a set of cultural beliefs. In some region it's also strongly affected by religional beliefs. Therefore, some of brief history topics will also be included here.

TAIWAN FACTS

Let's start with a small discussion about our small island Asian country, Taiwan, or maybe some will more familiar with the name of Republic of China (ROC). Our international society sometimes would still put a pressure for Taiwan by labelling them with another name of Chinese Taipei, which Taiwanese actually prefer to never acknowledge this name as their country name, in their international event participation. We may recall it from the 2012 London Olympics event where Taiwan forced to use Chinese Taipei name & Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee dummy flag to represents their athletes. Due to this international political disadvantages, some of us may perceive a very wrong assumption for Taiwan as a powerless little country, while the fact is actually far from that. I personally know a friend which open her eyes wide and ask me, "Why do you want to study there? Isn't the condition there not far from here? They still struggling with their high unemployment rate, right?"

I always believe that successful education system will lead to successful society which is in this context a country. Let's see below for some interesting fact of successful Taiwan which will open our eyes & realise how absurd is above question.

1. Taiwan is one of the Four Asian Tigers along with Hongkong, South-Korea, and Singapore.
2. Taiwan gain 20th position of largest economy in the world based on CIA World Factbook - GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) 2012. As a comparison, South-Korea is 13th, Hongkong is 36th, and Singapore is 41th.
3. Taiwan as the 20th freest economy in the world (5th in Asia-Pacific) based on Economic Freedom Score 2013. The variable to determine this rank include Rule of Law, Limited Government, Regulatory Efficiency, and Open Market. 
4. Taiwan retained it's 13th rank in the world and 4th rank in Asia based on Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 by World Economic Forum (WEF). Along with four other ratings (3rd in overall investment environment by BERI (Business Environment Risk Intelligence), 7th in IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, 1st in enterpreneurship based on IMD report, and as the 16th most improved economy for Ease Doing Business), WEF rating makes Taiwan a good choice for investment.
5. Taiwan provides the 9th best educational system worldwide based on Legatum Institute report.
6. National Taiwan University as a top university in Taiwan, placed 134th in The Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2012-2013.
7. Hsinchu Science Park has been called Taiwan's Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is home to many of the world's largest technology corporation in San Fransisco, U.S.
8. The world's largest semiconductor company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), provides it's product to high-tech companies such as Advanced Micro Devices, Marvell, NVIDIA, Intel, Apple, etc. So, chips for Apple's next generation iPads and iPhones are supplied by TSMC.
9. The world's 2nd largest semiconductor company also hold by Taiwan company, United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC).
10. Don't forget of some famous Taiwan brands such as Acer Inc., ASUS, BenQ, China Airlines, Chinatrust Commercial Bank, D-Link, Genius, Gigabyte Technology, HTC Corporation, UMAX Technologies, etc. 
11. JP Morgan analyst Alvin Kwock noted that over 80% of the world's notebook computer design is outsourced to Taiwan. (Boston World News, 2008).
12. Kingston Technology headquartered in U.S. is actually founded by Taiwanese expatriat.
13. Yahoo! and Youtube, also headquartered in U.S., both are co-founded by Taiwanese expatriat.

From above list, we can see actually how excel is Taiwan in the subject of economy and technology, which is of course can not be separated from it's successful education system. I've also noted that Taiwan also successfully develop advanced military technology, but I will not include it here for now and just consider it as a part of Taiwan's advanced technology. Then, how could an independent country with rapid economic growth and advanced technology development can't even use it's own official flag to participate in olympic games? To answer these question, we need to take a  look back to a piece of China history more than a century ago in 1911.

Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) as the last imperial dynasty in China has became more and more corrupted each day. While the imperial government seems to be very reluctant to change and people's hope of reformation is unlikely to happen, a scholar community led by a doctor named Sun Yat-Sen beguns to emerge. In the middle of mass dissapointment of imperial government weaknesses which compounded by inheritance of emperor throne by a 2 years old boy, Aisin-Gioro Pu-Yi (titled Xuantong Emperor), Sun Yat-Sen idea of Republic of China has been warmly welcomed. Start with Wuchang uprising in Wuhan in 10 October 1911 (Taiwanese celebrate this date as National Double Ten Day), Republic of China Government successfully established in Nanjing as it's first capital in 12 March 1912.

One decision of a leader will impact the whole team. One wrong decision of Sun Yat-Sen as the first president of Republic of China indeed greatly impact the country fate until these days. One decision that Sun Yat-Sen laterly regret was to handover his power to Yuan Shi-Kai (Qing Dynasty Prime Minister) as a part of agreement to let the last Qing ruler to abdicate. Just small thought, maybe the young age of the ruling emperor, 12 years at that time, is a Qing fortune since it is one factor that enables Sun's government to withstand forced abdicate due to humanity reason. Unfortunately, Yuan Shi-Kai secretly still desire an imperial ruler for China and declared himself as an emperor in late 1915. Faced fierce opposition & rebellion by his subordinates, Yuan decided to abdicate in March 1916 before died in June in the same year.

A power vacuum in ROC government has created chaos. In 1920, Sun try to unite the fragmented nation in alliance with China Communist Party (CCP) but unfortunately died due to cancer in 1925, left Chiang Kai-Shek that successfully seize most of central and south China under his rule with Kuo Min Tang (KMT) party. Lately, this condition triggers a civil war in China between CCP and KMT. I can't tell which side or what event is actually starts a war. Beside the fact that I don't really know either, I believe it's somewhat a sensitive topic and there is always different opinion everywhere. The absolute truth is that the war has forced Chiang Kai-Shek and his troops to flee to Taiwan island and start their new ROC government in 1949 with Taipei as it's capital. 

The man behind the successful takeover of mainland China under CCP rule is undoubtedly the famous Mao Ze-Dong. People's Republic of China (PRC) has established to replace ROC and Chairman Mao become the most influential national figure in China until these days. Traveler to Beijing will see his majestic big picture in front of Tian'anmen gate wall. With additional little fortune, you may also being offered for a local souvenir with Chairman Mao picture printed on it. I have a good fortune of course, therefore one souvenir shop keeper offer me a nice Chairman Mao keychain during my travel in Badaling Great Wall. Be remind to refuse politely if you're not interested in such souvenir since they will proudly ask you to buy. I personally feel a rather awkward to bring back a souvenir with national hero picture on it and vote for more scenery picture instead, so I didn't buy it. 

As a result of those civil war, the political tension between PRC and ROC still remains until nowadays despite it's gradually decrease over period. PRC always consider ROC as one of it's province and put political pressure to it's government in international society, while Taiwan actually already rapidly growth as an independent country. 

The next important event in history that create another gap between China and Taiwan and probably become one of my motivation to choose Taiwan instead of China as a place to study is Cultural Revolution. I actually very interested to do some web research and write more about China Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) since chinese culture topics seems always so fascinating to be discussed. However, I will just note the most important related aspect here.

To understand how massive is China Cultural Revolution impact to it's people, first we are demanded to be aware of what is the most fundamental cultural beliefs in, I believe, all chinese societies in the world. One values that still rooted until this modern era is what we called filial piety. Filial piety meanings described perfectly in a chinese character (pronounced 'xiao') which is depicted by 'old' character in the upper part and 'child' character for the bottom part. The combination create one unique character 'xiao' that be understood as child or young people obligation to exercise unquestioned obedience to their parents or the older generation. In this way, child education is start from a family as a society smallest unit and then elevated to the higher level where a filial child would become a filial citizen who must carry-out filial duty to their country. This basic Confucius (551-479 BC) teaching is spread widely through generations by inheritance of 'The 24 Filial Exemplars' book ('xiao jing'). One of chinese classic literature titled 'The Three-Character Classic' ('san zi jing') by Wang Yi-Lin (1223-1296) acclaim 'xiao jing' as the first book that a child should study before read other classics.

One of what Cultural Revolution does to China is shatter this belief and turn it upside down. The concept of 'family first and country next' somewhat become 'place country before anything else'. A popular song during the revolution enunciated, "Father and mother are dear, but not as dear as Chairman Mao." Numerous children in that period start to criticise and denounce their parents for offending Chairman Mao. They even accuse their own parents for guilty even if in the most case it will lead to death execution. Family unit crumbles and the whole country in chaos. When China try to rebuild it's shattered culture after 1980's along with the 'open-door policy', the rapid modernisation in that period had cause the presence of materialism become more teasing than a cultural matter.

What happen in Taiwan during that period is the absolute opposite. The little country indeed must also endure some hardship period after their defeat. Poverty period forced Taiwan to limit their daily consumption only to sweet potato instead of rice. Conflict with island indigenous people, aborigines ethnic group, must be resolved in order to established a fully approved government for the whole beautiful island. Martial law was enforced by president Chiang Kai-Shek since 1949 which is supposed to become one of the most important law to suppress communist power during the most intense conflict period between Taiwan and China. Taiwan almost 4 decades (38 years) martial law is the 2nd longest period in the world. Martial law has lifted in 1987 by president Chiang Ching-Kuo after the death of Chiang Kai-Shek, his father, in 1975. However, despite all those hardship period, Taiwanese remain conscious to preserve their chinese traditional values through their education system and, I believe, family teaching. Textbook of Confucian classics was used in Taiwan school since 1970. Despite of it's advance modernisation, Taiwan is one of the strongholds of traditional chinese culture at the present.

(To be continued)

Source:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tw.html
http://www.heritage.org/index/country/taiwan
http://investtaiwan.nat.gov.tw/matter/show_eng.jsp?ID=3
http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=179369&ctNode=413