We talked about Two Million Minutes in a previous post, and here is more - an interview by CNBC to comparatively look at the State of Education in the USA: State of Education - A look at the state of education in America, with CNBC’s Erin Burnett.

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 In an interview, Compton noted that “Our knowledge of these two cultures is seriously out of date and that has to change…fast,” and he also said, “Our economic future depends on it.”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

Reported by Xinhua that a recent survey by the China Youth Daily shows that more than 80% Chinese university students want to study abroad. Here are some of the observations:

• More than 80 percent of university students in China want to study abroad, according to a new online survey.
• The survey, involving 2,400 university students, revealed that 42 percent of respondents believe an overseas education will be beneficial to their future career development.
• It also showed 66 percent felt students with an education background overseas were more competitive than graduates from domestic universities when it came to job hunting.

Regarding to preferred geographic locations for study overseas,

The survey also showed the favorite destinations for overseas study were the United States, Britain, France, Australia and Canada.