Chapter 7

I think Nisbett should not state that East Asian education especially in areas like mathmatics and science is better than those in the West. He does not consider other aspects of possible reasons for such gaps but only cultural matter or difference of perception. In China the government presents the literacy rate as 90%. This apparent figure seems to be no problem when comparing Chinese students and Europeans where the literacy rate is about a bit higher. But the Chinese literacy rate excludes those who are not even able to place themselves as Chinese because of the one-child policy, which means they can not go to school to get enough education. If those people were to be counted as Chinese citizens it is said that the literacy rates would fall to 75-80%. So the students who get higher education in China are the smaller portion of the whole than that of Europe.