Letters | Improve China’s education system – don’t stop children from studying abroad

I refer to your report “China plans to put children off studying abroad as more pupils head overseas at younger ages” (February 17), and wish to share my perspective on the matter.

After I started up an extracurricular educational institution in 2016, I found that many parents search for ways to send their children abroad to avoid the high pressure of the Chinese education system. The opportunity to develop personal and academic interests is also an incentive. But some Chinese schools deliberately imitate Western education styles to attract attention and more pupils. Their way of teaching, which pays more attention to individual development, is in sharp contrast to the traditional Chinese methods which are more rigid and test-oriented. Having more children exposed to a more open system makes more parents willing to send them abroad for a real Western education.

I am pessimistic about the current education model in China. Although it seems to learn from international education models, the concept of “one test determining one’s life” is still deeply rooted. With more international or Westernised schools catering to the taste of rich Chinese, traditional Chinese culture cannot be properly inherited and carried forward, while Western culture is being taken out of context.