Two Million Minutes is a documentary film which compares how American students measure up to those in India and China.

The film is conceived by Robert A. Compton, who also was the executive director. As explained by Education World, the title means:

High school often is measured by years or events, but across many nations, there is a common factor: Every student has 2 million minutes from the time he or she leaves eighth grade until high school graduation.

The film follows six students through their senior year of high school in the United States, India, and China, and trying to show that “the simple fact is, global education standards have passed America by“, as said by Compton in a press release. In an interview, Compton noted that “Our knowledge of these two cultures is seriously out of date and that has to change…fast,” and he also said, “Our economic future depends on it.” Compton also writes a blog entitled What Should America Do?, which is “a continuation of the Two Million Minutes documentary film”, as explained by the author. “This blog offers deeper insights into education in China, India and the United States, and the challenge America faces”.

Not having much knowledge about education in India, what we can see from China is that education in the country is in fact desperately looking for remedies for its often labeled as examination-driven education. Just as an American scholar once pointed out in 2005 in a seminar on international education in Beijing , “while China is trying to move its education towards more quality and innovation oriented approaches, the U.S. is trying to upgrade the quality of its education by strengthening disciplines within schools and classes, and it appears that both are looking at each other”.

So, it is perhaps right to say that education is in many aspects about intercultural learning, which is in every way more important than economic competition.

Picture and film trailer credit: Two Million Minutes

According to statistics released in May 2006 by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China (MCA), by the end of 2005 there are totally 320,000 social organizations in China, marks an increase of 10.7% when compared with the previous year.

It is reported that the areas that the organizations cover include education and culture, science and technology, health and sports, environmental protection and agricultural development, charity and community development. But how many organizations are working in each of these areas is not available in the statistics. However, in an earlier unpublished research paper (in mid-2005) by an university it is reported that there are 44.63% on social services, 42.5% on research and survey, 39.9% are trade associations, 34.62% on culture and arts, 24.5 on legal aid, 21.8% on development and policy consulting, and 20.9% on poverty alleviation¹. It is interesting to notice that many of the organization involving themselves in education.

By the same statistics from MCA, among the overall 320,000 organizations, there are 171,000 non-government organizations (people’s organization); 148,000 “privately-owned non-enterprise institutions”², and 975 foundations. And, there are more than 1,600 organizations working at the national level or in the cross-provinces pattern, more than 20,000 working within certain provinces, i.e. at the provincial level, and over 50,000 organizations at county level. Among all the organizations, there are more than 50,000 Professional organizations, over 40,000 academic associations, around 53,000 trade association, and more than 23,000 federations.

1. The figure does not add up as 100%, since some organizations are active in several areas. [↩]
2. A category when you register with the registration authority. [↩]

This news report says China needs one million interpreters, while there are only 200 professional interpreter graduates from interpreters training class every year.