Cần gì học

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Proposals to downgrade English from being a compulsory subject (môn học bắt buộc) in Chinese schools have stirred heated debate (thảo luận sôi nổi) in China over recent days, with rural (nông thôn) parents appearing more supportive (ủng hộ) of the idea than those living in major Chinese cities.

For decades, English has been a compulsory subject in all Chinese schools from primary school through high school — the only class to receive this status apart from Chinese and math (toán).

But that could be about to change. At this year’s “two sessions” — an annual meeting of China’s top legislative and advisory bodies, which concluded Monday — several representatives proposed scaling back (kéo lùi lại, giảm tải) English teaching.

Chen Weizhi, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body, suggested reducing the role of English in schools in several ways, as the subject is poorly taught and given an excessive emphasis in the curriculum.

These proposals included scrapping English classes for first and second graders, and making English an optional (lựa chọn, tự chọn) rather than a compulsory subject in China’s most important national exams: namely, the high school enrolment exams, or zhongkao, and college entrance exams, known as the gaokao.

Bài trước: Mỹ thua rồi