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Rising Giants
Rising Giants:What Can India and China Teach Each Other?John KoetsierETEC 511 Assignment #3 – UBC
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Rising Giants
China and India are two global giants in terms of both population andland area. However, despite their size and despite the reality that bothplay large roles on the world stage, the reality is that they are juststarting to experience their eventual impact on the world.But both of these enormous emerging countries have equally-giant challenges facing them in terms of population size,infrastructure, regional differences, poverty, and more. Overcomingthese challenges and being able to deliver basic as well as highereducation equitably would be huge steps towards unleashing the fullpotential of their people. Aggressive investments in education will helpIndia and China grow into their size and ensure that they realize thepotential they have for participation in global markets and wealthcreation.The question this paper seeks to answer is: what can each of these rising giants teach each other about educating their citizens? Toanswer this we will examine concerns common to both countries,specific instances of success for each, and lessons each can teach theother. While it is certainly true that India and China face mountainouseducational challenges, e-learning can help … if properly applied.
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Rising Giants
Similarities and ChallengesThe first thing that is obvious to even the most casual observerof India and China is their sheer population size. Almost a third of theworld’s entire population are Indian or Chinese, including 1.1 billionIndians and 1.3 billion Chinese (UN Population Division of Economicand Social Affairs, 2007). Population size can be a good thing, aseconomies of scale can be brought to bear, creating efficiencies. Butwhen both of the nations currently under discussion are developingnations which have not fully extended all the infrastructure Westernnations consider basic to all corners of their lands, there are hugechallenges to overcome. Both have an enormous burden to bearsimply extending basic education to their citizens, as Zhangdocuments in the case of China (Zhang, 2005).This challenge is compounded by the fact that their populationsare not static – in spite of well-known policies such as China’s onechild per family. That is certainly helping, since according to the UnitedNations, India’s population is growing faster. But China, due to thepopulation lag effect, is still expected to be home to 1.4 billion peoplein 2050 (UN Population Division of Economic and Social Affairs, 2007).The same report projects India’s 2050 population to be 1.7 billion,meaning India will likely surpass China as the world’s most populouscountry.
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