ECNU REVIEW OF EDUCATION · 9(2), 1-18 · 2026
Purpose of education:
Zhao & Zhong
From Meritocracy to Human Interdependence: Redefining the Purpose of Education
Yong Zhao University of Kansas
Ruojun Zhong YEE Education
The argument at a glance
THE CRITIQUE
Meritocracy ranks people on narrow measures of talent plus effort. In schools this fosters unhealthy competition, overlooks diverse talents, and ignores unequal starting points.
THE PROPOSAL
The Human Interdependence Paradigm (HIP): cultivate each learner's unique greatness, and realize its value by applying it to problems that matter to others.
THE METHOD
Theoretical analysis drawing on historical, philosophical, and sociological perspectives.
Zhao & Zhong (2025) · ECNU Review of Education, 9(2)
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Where meritocracy came from
A satire taken seriously
Michael Young coined the term in 1958 to warn against a society stratified by “IQ plus effort.” The warning was adopted as an ideal instead.
An old practice
China's keju exams selected officials for roughly 2,000 years and spread across East Asia. College entrance exams carry the same logic today, widely accepted as fair, even by the disadvantaged.
The appeal
Status, power and rewards flow from talent and effort rather than birth: a promise of fairness, efficiency and social mobility.
Young's own verdict: the meritorious can “harden into a new social class without room in it for others.”
Young (2001)
Zhao & Zhong (2025) · ECNU Review of Education, 9(2)
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Schools as sorting machines
Inside schools
Performance is constantly assessed and rewarded. High achievers receive accolades, better resources and leadership roles; lower performers are relegated to remedial programs or overlooked.
Beyond schools
Schooling is society's main mechanism for allocating status: graduates of prestigious colleges gain higher earnings, better health, stability and civic influence.
The built-in logic
To gain access, students must outperform their peers on uniform metrics: grades, rubrics, high-stakes tests.
“Success for one often implies failure or lower standing for another.” Zhao & Zhong (2025)
Zhao & Zhong (2025) · ECNU Review of Education, 9(2)
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What the competition costs
Consistent findings
Heavier school demands and frequent assessment track with anxiety, depressive symptoms and sleep disturbance in adolescents (Pascoe et al., 2020; Steare et al., 2023).
$282B
Annual U.S. economic burden of mental illness, on par with a typical recession (Thompson & HealthDay, 2024).
$3T
Lifetime productivity and wages lost to adolescents' unmet behavioural health needs (United Hospital Fund, 2024).
The deeper cost: a zero-sum mindset
For me to win, others must fail. Students learn to treat peers as rivals, narrow their view of where opportunity lives, overlook what others could offer them, and miss the value of diversity altogether.
Zhao & Zhong (2025) · ECNU Review of Education, 9(2)
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Four assumptions that don't hold
1
“Merit can be measured objectively.”
Tests are narrow and culturally biased. IQ, SAT and GPA are weak predictors of long-term success (Gould, 1996; Hiss & Franks, 2014).
2
“Everyone starts from the same line.”
Outcomes track family income and resources; Berliner (2006) shows poverty is the primary cause of low achievement among students labelled failures.
3
“Effort guarantees success.”
Diligent people hit systemic barriers, while privilege, inheritance and connections smooth the path for others (Markovits, 2019).
4
“The successful deserve it.”
Winners credit their own ability; the less successful get the blame. Inequality is justified and resentment grows (Sandel, 2021).
Zhao & Zhong (2025) · ECNU Review of Education, 9(2)
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Redefining merit: unique greatness
People are jagged, not rankable
Humans vary across many dimensions: multiple intelligences, personality, sixteen basic desires. Everyone carries a jagged profile of strengths and weaknesses (Rose, 2016).
Value is contextual
The same talent is prized in Renaissance Florence or Silicon Valley and ignored elsewhere. No single, timeless definition of “useful” merit exists.
Schools force a trade
Mandating one standardized curriculum spends learners' finite time fixing deficits and leaves no room to develop the talents they actually have.
“Any talent, if great, can be valuable.” Zhao & Zhong (2025)
Zhao & Zhong (2025) · ECNU Review of Education, 9(2)
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The rise of the “useless”
Global market value, 2023 (US$ billions)
Sources: Newzoo; IFPI; The Business Research Company; UN Tourism; GlobeNewswire (in Zhao & Zhong, 2025)
Talents outside the “merit” set now carry real economic weight
Arts, entertainment, hospitality, sports and creative work are large, growing sectors; 64M Americans freelanced in 2023, 38% of the workforce.
The market is questioning traditional merit
52% of U.S. job postings list no formal education requirement (2024). States and firms such as IBM, Google and Delta are dropping degree requirements for skills-based hiring.
AI accelerates the shift
As AI disrupts traditionally high-paying, highly educated jobs, new work will draw on capabilities schools have historically undervalued.
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The Human Interdependence Paradigm
Not one scale
The goal is no longer outperforming peers on a single measure; it is developing each learner's jagged excellence. Every form of unique excellence holds potential value.
Value through contribution
Greatness matters when applied to problems that matter to others. Contributing builds purpose, self-actualization and authentic happiness (Maslow; Seligman).
Interdependence by design
Like the division of labour (Smith; Durkheim), but practised authentically in school: I serve your needs with my strengths and rely on yours for mine. Diversity powers the team (Page, 2007).
Zhao & Zhong (2025) · ECNU Review of Education, 9(2)
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What HIP asks of schools
Personalized learning as autonomy
Not just custom pacing: students explore interests, develop strengths, and discover how their potential can serve others.
Problems are found, not assigned
Unlike typical project-based learning, students identify problems relevant to their own strengths and significant to others, weighing ethical and moral impact along the way.
Collaboration as social intelligence
Recognizing your own and others' strengths and orchestrating them together. Diversity is actively leveraged, not merely tolerated.
Structures must shift
Flexible curriculum, teachers as mentors rather than deliverers of content, and assessment that reaches beyond standardized tests.
Zhao & Zhong (2025) · ECNU Review of Education, 9(2)
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The purpose of education, redefined
FROM: MERITOCRACY
Rank all students on one scale
Zero-sum: my win is your loss
Peers as rivals
Worth = test performance
TO: INTERDEPENDENCE
Cultivate each learner's unique greatness
Positive-sum: mutual flourishing
Peers as indispensable collaborators
Worth = contribution to others
Education fulfils its potential as “a fundamentally human endeavor rooted in shared growth and mutual support.”
Zhao & Zhong (2025)