English Learning Still Important

Qianjiang Evening News March 7

Li Guangyu, a deputy to the National People’s Congress, suggested during this year’s Two Sessions that English should be removed as a college entrance examination ( gaokao) discipline, and in primary and middle school, it should be downgraded from a compulsory subject to an optional one. Li put forward this proposal based on the fact that students in China are spending too much time on English learning.

The examination-oriented English teaching results in many students being unable to successfully communicate in English, although they might do well in English tests. However, even if English is eliminated from the gaokao, it will not retreat from the overall education system. English is the language most used in the world and an important tool to obtain knowledge. If it is removed from school education, people will turn to social education institutions to learn English. Many parents demand their children take English training classes in social institutions after school, not only for a higher test score, but also for better communication skills.

China’s frequent contact with the outside world means English learning will become only more important rather than the opposite. The huge investment of time and money into English learning is not a reasonable excuse to play down English learning or even delist English from the gaokao. To give up English learning amounts to closing the window on knowledge about the outside world.