A prominent Chinese lawmaker, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee member Xu Jin, recently came up with a controversial suggestion that it has been a waste of national resources to teach English to all primary and secondary school students. English as a compulsory subject in the gaokao, the university entrance exam, should be scrapped, he said.
Having been an English language teacher for more than 36 years, I fully agree with his point of view. For most schools in China, the status of English as a subject should be something like that of French or Spanish in an international school. Pupils learn it simply for the sake of interest.