China Downplays English-Language Education With Series of Reforms · Global Voices
Jack Hu

A language school in the Tianhe district of Guangzhou. Photo by Jussi Mononen CC: AT-NC-SA.
Efforts are underway in parts of China to strip English-language education of some of its importance within the country's school systems, a move that has been widely applauded online.
The Beijing Municipal Education Commission has introduced a series of reforms to cool down enthusiasm for English in the education system since October 2013. The Commission has reduced the weight of the English ability test from 150 to 100 in the Gaokao, China's national higher education entrance examination. At the same time, the weight of the Chinese ability test will be increased from 150 to 180 in the new scheme that will go into effect in 2016.
English learning for primary school students will also be postponed from first grade to third grade.
The policy changes have been backed by Chinese Communist Party think tanks, such as the Intelligence Research Academy, whose head Zhang Shuhua argued in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference that English-language studies were “destructive” to education as a whole. Zhang stressed that language studies should be treated as a means for social reform and development rather than an end.
Compared to Beijing, education authorities from other provinces have taken even more radical measures. For example, the Shandong government decided to cancel the English-listening test for Gaokao in 2014, while the Jiangsu government is considering excluding the English ability test altogether from the Gaokao.
These changes have received quite a lot of support from users on China's social web, where there is a tendency to see English and Chinese at odds with each other. For example, in the comment section of a popular local media outlet, Phoenix's special feature report about the policy change, a netizen from Guangxi wrote:
英语害了多少中国人，早该废除了。本来英语是一门语言，应该按学语言的方式来学英语，可国人却把英语当符号来学，死记硬背，应付考试了之。[…]曾经一段时期，很多专业要英语过多少级才能获得学位，这就使很多学生把时间都用来攻英语，而专业课却勉勉强强，学而不精。
语文不单是一门语言，它承载着祖国的千年文化，它不只是文学，也是人学。提高语文的地位，增加国学内容，削减英语的分量，利国利民。
How many Chinese have been hurt by the English education? It should have been abolished long ago. English is a language and should be studied as such. But Chinese students force themselves to remember the English vocabularies as imprinted signs for exam purpose […] For a period of time, some universities demanded that their students pass the English language examination as a precondition for their degree. Students are forced to spend all their time studying English and so neglect their own field.
Chinese is not only a language, it embodies our country's thousand-year culture. It covers both literature and humanity. Lifting the status of the Chinese language and cutting English from our education will benefit the country as well as the people.
An anonymous article widely circulated online even connected the policy with the official political propaganda of the Chinese Dream:
不立即废除英语高考，中国复兴梦是白日梦！【转】 学英语是是孩子的恶梦，中国人的肿瘤，应该做手术了。
[…] 为了学英语浪费了多少有志之士的心血？这是我国科技发展迟缓的一个重要因素。全民学英语是中国教育的一大失败，高层应当进行反思。
As long as the English test still is part of the Gaokao, the revival of the Chinese Dream is a daydream! [Repost] The English language is the nightmare of children, the tumor of the Chinese people. It's time for surgery […] How many people have put in hours of work sweating over learning English? This is a factor contributing to the backward development of our country's science and technology. Elementary English education is a failure of the Chinese education system, and upper-ranking authorities should reflect on this.
Some educators are uneasy about such advocacy for radical changes. Educator Ling Zongwei (@凌宗伟1376361860) rebuffed the ideological argument:
一个想复兴的民族，拒绝学外语，如何融入世界呢？我甚至怀疑取消英语教学与考试是一个阴谋。
How can a nation be revived by rejecting foreign language learning? How can it integrate with the world? I am a bit skeptical about the policy and inclined to believe that the abolition of English-language education and examination is a conspiracy.
Current affairs observer Xu Jianming (@许建民) also found the education campaign disturbing:
当下，取消英语教学和考试之风，似乎越演越烈。人有惰性，谁都不愿考试。当年文革，学生们不仅反对考试，还打倒教师，砸烂学校，的确轻松潇洒。结果，却是荒废了学业，虚度了年华，多少人抱憾终生。经济全球化以来，印度发展加快，原因就在于英语的普及。因此，英语教学不应强制推行，但也不应一风吹。
The movement calling for the abolition of English-language education and examination is getting stronger and stronger. Students are by nature lazy and don't want to take examinations. During the Cultural Revolution, students were against examinations. They beat up teachers and tore down schools. Everything came so naturally. Eventually they lost their time and their education and were regretful throughout their lives. In the time of economic globalization, the development of India is driven by their popular English education. I do agree that we don't need to make English-language education compulsory, but abolition is another story.
“Grey-pigeon silver-water” (@灰鸽子银水) believed that the policy will result in an educational divide:
根据我对山东河南高中教育的一些了解，高考取消英语，只是取消了穷孩子学英语的权利而已，人生，又一扇窗关掉了。至于沿海的，有钱人家的孩子，他们反正是要本科出国念的，或者会在国内大学大二出国交换的，反正会学好英语的。
According to my experience in teaching high schools in Shandong and Henan provinces, to exclude the English test from the Gaokao would mean to deprive poor children of the right to learn English. Another window in their lives will be closed. In coastal provinces, children from wealthy families are able to pursue tertiary education aboard, or they have the chance to join exchange programs while they are attending local universities. The opportunity to learn English is always there for them.
Indeed, Wang Haitao, vice president of New Oriental Education and Technology Group, a private education institute to train students’ language ability and examination skill, stated [en] that the decision will create new business opportunities for families looking to supplement their children's English language education.
So far, public opinion is in favor of the education reform: 72 percent of approximately 35,000 respondents in an online poll conducted by Sina Survey expressed their support for the changes to the national examination system. However, in another online survey conducted by state-owned broadcaster CCTV, the same percentage of voters want to have mathematics taken off of the Gaokao, believing that it is useless except for counting money:
继北京高考英语降分引发热议后，数学又引发了大家的集体吐槽，认为数学难度太大，平时生活中，买菜什么的需要用到几何函数吗？关于“数学该滚出高考吗”的调查显示，7万多网友支持数学滚出高考，称自己仅是“做题机器”。
Math prompts public complaints also, following hot discussion over Beijing's reduction of English-language points on the Gaokao. Many think math curricula are too difficult for students. Do we need to use geometric function in our daily lives when we're buying vegetables? The poll question “should math be taken off of the Gaokao?” received more than 70,000 yes votes from netizens, calling themselves “mathematics exercise machine [calculator]”.