CRI听力:China 2013 Educational Reform Targeted English

In early December, the Ministry of Education released a draft of the reform plans for Gaokao, China's national college entrance exam.

The plan said English would not be a Gaokao test subject in the future.

Instead, students can take English tests organized by social organizations.

Those tests can now be taken more than once, even in the same year, and only the highest score will be cited as a reference for college admissions.

The reform will be piloted in some provinces beginning in 2014 and, after being evaluated, expanded upon in 2017. By 2020, a new testing and recruiting system will be formed and promoted nationwide.

As part of efforts to implement the plan, the Beijing Municipal Committee of Education has said it's considering reducing the difficulty of the city's English test, starting in 2014.

Options include reducing the vocabulary component from 3,500 words to 3,080.

Starting from 2016, students can also take two tests within one year and only the better scores will be cited as a reference for the college admissions.

Meanwhile, the Beijing educational authorities said they will be cutting the weight of English in the scoring systems of both the Gaokao and senior high school entrance exams starting in 2016.

The municipal authorities have also announced they will exclude English from the curriculum for first and second graders in primary schools in 2014.

Moreover, educational authorities in the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong have also announced similar moves to downgrade the role of English in the classroom.

Xiong Bingqi, vice-president of the Beijing-based 21st Century Education Research Institute, explained why the authorities are choosing to target English.

"People are not satisfied with the level of English education in recent years. All students are required to learn English at school and pass exams. But their practical ability to use the language is not improving. As such, the current reforms put an emphasis on the reformation of English education."

Critics have long complained Chinese students have focused too much on English, which they contend risks sidelining the mother tongue, Chinese.

However, the planned downgrading of English in the curriculum hasn't so-far appeared to have dampened interest in learning English among high school students.

"I will definitely continue to learn English as we have to communicate with the outside world. What really matters is for us to acquire a foreign language instead of earn high scores in an exam, such as Gaokao."

"I think English is an important language. It will be widely used in my work and communication with foreigners."

Educational expert Xiong Bingqi said what's more important is to reform the country's enrollment system in an effort to better nurture and select talent.

"The key is to push forward the separation between exams and enrollment. To achieve this, the educational authorities should delegate power to social organizations and schools to allow them to adjust exams and enrollment. Without this kind of reform, the current plans are unlikely to produce the intended effects."

Currently, the quality of education is largely evaluated by educational authorities. And only a selected number of universities here in China have the right to recruit students on their own.

For CRI, I'm Yin Xiuqi.