Most Chinese were taught and pressured as a teenager especially for the college entrance examination, which explains their opposition, added Chu Zhaohui, a research fellow at CNIER.
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The television documentary, called “Are Our Kids Tough Enough Chinese, has shocked the Chinese teachers”. Chinese School, which aired on BBC Two on Tuesday, showed the five Chinese teachers spending a month with students at the Bohunt School of Liphook in Hampshire.
This meant not only a more disciplined class structure, but also longer school days. Zhoa, who teaches Mandarin, said that in China, it is different.
The Telegraph reported that Li Aiyun, from the “Nanjiing Foreign Language School” gave out homework sheets, and rather than concentrating on what needed to be done, pupils were chatting and eating. I had to control myself, or I would be insane. I would assert however, that we are moving in the right direction when a student in the experiment comments: “Their teaching methods did get results but we didn’t always feel we were learning much”. And the other half? For example, they were full of passion when we had a contest to see who could make the best speech.
Yang Jun, a science teacher from Xi’an, agreed with Li’s sentiment.
Yang also challenged an individualized approach to pupil learning. We don’t. We have one syllabus, one standard; you survive or you die. However, she added, “Even if they don’t work, they can get money. She reminds me of my nan”. This revelation comes from a group of Chinese teachers who have spent four weeks in a British comprehensive school. “If they (the British government) really cut benefits down to force people to go to work, students might see things in a different way”, she said. “Chinese School” is one that I find a little baffling.
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According to the Daily Mail, the teachers found that the British Welfare system made the children too “idle”, lacking in ambition and ill-disciplined.
The Chinese teachers use rigid methods familiar to Chinese students – no talking, no questions, study hard and obey the teacher. They are not used to being incarcerated in a large group and in the same classroom studying a very narrow curriculum. Some of the students were caught on camera in tears – as was one of the teachers.
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Fletch Lives, a netizen from Liverpool, said: “Some parts are true but let’s not forget how oppressive the Chinese education system is”.
