NEW YORK - In the first-ever international summit on the teaching profession, China was recognized for improvements to its quality of teaching.

Held in New York City over the weekend, the International Summit on the Teaching Profession provided a forum for high-performing nations and improving countries to exchange ideas and experiences on education.

Angel Gurria, the secretary-general of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international organization that pushes for economic progress and world trade, said the education system in China has improved by leaps and bounds despite the fact that the nation is not the wealthiest in the world.

But Gurria argued that "excellence is not necessarily related to the level of resources".

The 16 countries and regions which took part in the event, hosted by the US Department of Education, were Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Chinese mainland, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.

Andrea Schleicher, a special adviser on education policy to the secretary-general, also heaped compliments on China's quality of teaching, notably in Shanghai.

He echoed Gurria's sentiments and said that China's success in schools has been driven by its leaders in education.

"The PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) findings show that a country's success is not inherited, but it's really created by what people do," Schleicher said.

PISA is an internationally standardized assessment administered by the OECD since 2000. It is a well-recognized exam given to 15-year-old students from different countries every three years.

In 2009, students from the Chinese mainland took part in the PISA testing. Students from Shanghai topped every other country in three assessment areas: reading, math and science. According to the official release, more than 25 percent of Shanghai's 15-year-old students demonstrated advanced mathematics skills to solve complex problems, compared to the OECD average of just 3 percent for other countries.

"Shanghai's teaching quality was crucial in providing an environment conducive for the students to succeed," said Kenneth Chen, undersecretary for education for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan were hailed as educational superstars because they did significantly better than the average for OECD members.

"Nowhere is the rapidity of educational change and improvement greater than in Asia," said Tony Jackson, vice-president for education at Asia Society.

At a news conference during the two-day summit, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that the US hopes to strengthen and elevate its teaching profession by learning from other countries.

The American students' poor performance, which ranked slightly above the OECD average at the 2009 PISA testing, is a "wake-up call" for the US, Duncan told the New York Times.

According to the OECD report, only 2 percent of US students reached the top rung of math performance. By comparison, 22 percent of the Shanghai students and 11 percent of the Hong Kong students attained that level.

"I think the US has a lot to learn from other countries. You have other countries in which only the top talents are allowed to enter the classrooms. These talents must be properly compensated and supported. There needs to be a rally behind those teachers, to provide them with opportunities to continue to master this craft. Teaching is a tough and challenging job," Duncan said. "I look at some of these high-performing countries - be it Finland, Singapore, South Korea - what you see is amazing collaboration and trust between school administrators and teacher unions to improve their schools' performances."

During the summit, experts agreed that the key to improving student performances is improving the quality of teaching.

"Teachers must be a central part of any effective solution and provided with the tools to lead change," Gurria said.

"It's clear that no two countries are the same but that doesn't mean we don't face common challenges," Duncan said. "This is an area where we need to move forward with a sense of urgency because building a strong teaching force is critical to having a successful education system."

China Daily