Life in Urban Cities
The man sits in a tube, using his electronic box of a mobile throughout the whole journey. He looks up once in awhile to check whether his train stop has arrived yet, then goes back to his phone. Such is the scene I see this evening while commuting home on the MTR, the Hong Kong public train system. The train doors open and the characteristic sound of a bell and automated voice ring out, while enervated office workers eagerly pack into the train. The doors close after a moment’s pause, and everyone is squeezed in the train like a can of sardines.
According to the OECD’s report on global trends, there is a growing urban population due to increases in population and migration from rural areas to cities. The amount of population living in urban cities in OECD countries will grow to 85% on average by 2050. Cities across the world face unique dilemmas and opportunities, such as the overcrowding and high concentration of people in a small area despite the immense options for transportation. According to the OECD, cities are displaying similar patterns and facing similar challenges, with the world seeming to become a network of city-states with similar economic, social and governance patterns.
Sitting in a Starbucks while trying to write something meaningful, I notice a young student and his tutor. His tutor is teaching him algebraic mathematics, a branch of mathematics, which I find quite advanced (at least in my opinion). The student looks even more puzzled after each attempt of his tutor’s to explain. They decide to take a break while the child tries to absorb the mathematical concept. Metropolitan areas like Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Berlin, London face similar but different problems with education. From the research of the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), students living in metropolitan areas of a population of more than 100,000 have an advantage in terms of educational aptitude. Although, there are some OECD countries that are exception to this pattern seen such as in Austria, Ireland and Turkey where urban students did worse than rural students. While in OECD countries such as the US and Portugal, urban and rural students do equally well. The research also found that immigrant students face more difficulty and rank lower in mathematics in comparison to their native-born students.
It’s 3am and I walk home from a night out drinking with friends in Lan Kwai Fong, or LKF, as the Hong Kong expats call it. It’s a dark winter night with the only light being the streetlights, and I walk on the road with little traffic. A few homeless struggle to keep warm with bundles of blankets and cardboard to protect themselves from the harsh gales throughout the city. Hong Kong is a relatively safe city compared to Chicago, London or Barcelona. I doubt I would be able to walk alone at 3am in Barcelona with any feeling of safety or peace of mind.
The next challenge cities face is safety, are cities more dangerous than rural areas? In any metropolitan city greater income disparity and diversity of cultures can lead to a strain on ties between different cultural groups. In fact, a survey among 50 OECD countries found a correlation between a city’s growth rate and the murder rate. In such environments, education is seen as a way to ease tensions and teach children acceptance of different cultures, civic integration and conflict solving. The OECD highlights the difficulty in balancing such issues as the main objective of education should be teaching and learning, not crime prevention. Increasingly though schools are being used as a way to teach children such values. In fact, a recent study from public high schools in Chicago suggests that student’s participation in after-school extracurricular activities (other than sports) and other academic and social development have less impact on student’s commitments to civic participation than civic learning opportunities in schools.
While writing on a park bench in the afternoon, I see a Chinese student on a lunch break. He is alone with a gaming device and a book in the park, and he was not accompanied by any friends. He seemed to be muttering things to himself, as if reprimanding himself. He was saying “I shouldn’t have done that” over and over again in Cantonese. According to the OECD research, children and young adolescents living in urbanized environments are more likely to have problems with aggression and substance abuse.
How should global cities leverage their increasing diversity and ensure equity in education for the future? The OECD leaves the question up to global cities as to what values to promote.
Sources
"Trends Shaping Education." Trends Shaping Education 2014. OECD. Web. 20 Jan. 2016. <http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/Spotlight No3 Urban.pdf>.
Coughlan, Sean. "Are Cities the New Countries? - BBC News." BBC News. BBC News. Web. 20 Jan. 2016. <http://www.bbc.com/news/education-35305586>.