cóng从guó jì国际cè shì测试kàn看zhōng guó中国jiào yù教育de的fā zhǎn发展yǔ与tiǎo zhàn挑战
International student assessments show that students in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang perform especially well in mathematics and science, with reading scores also at a relatively high level.
However, these four regions cannot represent all of China, because they have better economic and educational conditions.
More notably, these regions not only have many high-achieving students, but also very few students who are weak in all three areas: mathematics, science, and reading.
These results are consistent with China's long-term efforts to promote education reform.
China first worked to ensure that more children could attend school. It then used public funds to guarantee compulsory education and tried to narrow gaps between regions and schools through a unified curriculum, improved rural schools, teacher exchanges, and inspections of teaching quality.
Later, policies also began to address excessive homework, private tutoring outside school, study pressure, and students' feelings about their daily lives.
In recent years, education has also been linked with technology, talent development, and the development of artificial intelligence.
Good results cannot prove that every policy has succeeded, nor can they show that educational gaps have disappeared.
In particular, the decline in reading scores shows that students' ability to read for long periods and think with concentration still needs attention.