UK and China Education Comparison

UK and China Education Comparison

What does ‘education’ mean? In the Oxford English Dictionary, it means “The culture or development of personal knowledge or understanding, growth of character, moral and social qualities” (Oed.com, 2020). We can also say that education is essential to people’s life; it is a process of teaching and a way to brighten people’s minds. Education could be anywhere, but nowadays we speaking to education generally refers to campus education as the two big countries of the world, Chinese and British education system are totally different from each other, which both contain advantage and disadvantage. This essay is going to compare China education system and UK education system in three ways: the different operating system which includes the difference of costs between two education systems, the second part is student personal development, and the last one is the different attitude of student due to the education system. But before those, it will be great for the reader to understanding the history between those two education systems.

In the west, the origins of education were greatly influenced by religious organizations: priests recognized the importance of education and established the school system. Many of the original universities in Europe had a Catholic background. The establishment and development of organized education in Britain was started in 6th-17th century period, which began at the same time as the introduction of Christianity, at that time, the church had a monopoly on education. After the Second World War, the education reform in Britain has gradually formed the current education system (Wang, 1995). The history of Chinese education is unlike the British. It began with Chinese classics, not with religious organizations. In early China, educated officials were employed to run the empire, which means that examinations have existed in China for thousands of years ago. The imperial examination system for selecting officials was established in the Sui dynasty and perfected by emperor Taizhong of the Tang dynasty, at the end of  Qing dynasty, modern western education was introduced. After that, through the changes of the times, it gently became the current system (Sun, 2009). It shows the two systems start with different goals, and it more or less affect what student think about education nowadays, UK started the education more like ‘to educate’, Christianity aims to spread knowledge to the pupil at that time which is extremely different from China, so UK student think school is the place where they can develop themselves. On the contrary, Chinese students think of education as a system that not only enables them to develop themselves but also gain cultural knowledge.

The two countries, as seen, views education as an essential project in the development aspects. However, education is a process that involves the use of various resources and workforce. Training equipment, learning facilities, and even food are some of the resources that education systems require, added is the fees paid to the teachers and tutors that are in these institutions (Erriot & Soo, 2013). The cash paid is categorized under tuition fees. These two countries take part in helping the students with tuition fees, with the aim of increasing the number of intellects in such countries.

Moreover, both of them are very conscious of the importance of education to the flourishing of the countries.  But, the amount that each of the two countries will, therefore, allocate for the sector will dictate the tuition fees that the institutions will charge. This brings us to the question, what are the cost difference between the two education systems. China, as a state, has a compulsory education law. This law states that a Chinese citizen or child is entitled to be in school at least nine-year, which includes a period that covers the primary education and the secondary education, these two stages are categorized under free education. After which, the student proceeds to the colleges and universities. Here, China offers low-interest education loans to the students that achieve high grades, are conscious of the state’s laws, and are needy. The loans are given to the students either by applying for the low-interest loans as stated by the rules from the banks, or by joining the military schools, where they are given the options of free education, payable by five years’ service and lastly by accepting to work in the remote areas, where the employers pay the fees, and the students agree to pay the money in five years installments as soon as they start working as in China current Issues in Education (Haiying & Sueson, 2012). From this, it is very true to say that the cost of education is meager. Britain, on the other hand, can be said to have a costly education system. The main assertion for this is, the government of the UK in 2016 withdrew the findings that are given to higher educations. As a result, the tuition fees in such countries have drastically risen to well over 3,000 dollar. The education system, both from the beginning levels like primary levels to college levels, depending on the worth of the students and the family’s financial status. Moreover, research states that the total numbers of Britain drop out is increasing drastically in line with the abnormal increase in tuition fees that are being imposed by the institutions. It is therefore evident that not all the students can achieve the marks that are required to get the education loans, and some of the students that are not capable of such are from families that are not financially stable, thereby leaving them with dropping out as the only option—bringing me to the conclusion that the cost of Education system in China is relatively low than that of the UK.

A country needs to make efforts towards making education accessible for all the races that exist within their border. However, this may not be the end of the road for making the system of education better. The second and significant part is the ability of an education system to help students in personal development. The Chinese education system, to begin with, is set to make it very accommodative for the learners. Unlike other education systems, China’s education system contains primary levels, middle schools and senior high school, and lastly, the colleges and universities, which are instead optional. The first three parts are very compulsory in the country, and parents that do not give their children the privileges of attending these three are considered to have broken federal offense (Wu, 2007). In the first three parts, the students are taught a variety of fields. By completing the three primary parts, a student should be very knowledgeable on the unified management. Moreover, from the education structure of the country, by finishing the senior secondary, a student is perceived as very learned and can generally be employed in the various fields and organizations. This is clear evidence that china’s education is much focused on giving the students personal development skills that they can use in the professional area. As a result, they have set the compulsory study levels, and funded the levels to make it accessible by all the students, and also structured the learnings to be fully equipped and deliverable by this stage (Donald, 2009). In Britain, the education system differs slightly from what china believes.

To begin with, the system that offers training to the students at the high school levels are generalized. This is because they are structured to give the students general information, up to the high school levels. This, therefore, means that at the high school levels, the students have little knowledge of specific fields, and can only work on the field that does not require special skills. Therefore, in Britain, the university and college certificates are essential, in that without these documentations, students get little to no chance of competing in the professional fields because they have no qualifications. The strategy may be a perfect one, as they state that they are focused on generating the most qualified personnel. However, this has divided the society into two parts, the educated and the uneducated. This has made me build my assertion that China’s education is more focused on giving students personal development skills more conveniently.

Personal development gives the learner the abilities and experiences that they need in the future for their careers. However, this is not the end of the case. A student’s attitude towards a program is essential in determining what a student will absorb at the end of the study. Moreover, our views are significant determiners of what we may be able to incorporate at the end of the day.  It is, therefore imperative to consider the student’s view of the education system, as this is an excellent way to make us able to realize the actual impacts of the programs to the students. Britain has seen high numbers of high school dropouts. Many people view this as a result of the Britain benefits fees that the government gives to the citizens, which makes the students lazy (Greenaway & Hainess, 2003). However, from a closer look, the system is not favorable to the students, and as a result, they have opted for dropping out as the best way to express their misfortunes.

The system, to begin with, give the students general education, and this may act as a significant point that leads to the notion of dropping out of schools. Also, the famous national examination, “GCE” serves as a significant point of discouragement to the students in the country (Acqua, 2013). This examination is very biased; for instance, students view the types of studies that they get to vary. The class attendances also are not the same. But the testing is done under one examination, where the parent expects the students to pass the examination. Britain’s education also has many students in the colleges as per the researches that were carried out in the year 2018. However, the only set back that the country can be attributed to is, not all the students that enroll goes up to graduation, as most drop out. The tremendous drop out strategy can be a point to prove that the students are not pleased with the education system. China, on the other side, does not have any famous national examinations like Britain. Because of the education system tests on not only the ability to score but also the ability to solve problems and cope. Moreover, this has been made possible by the fact that the different levels of the three lower education stages also prepares the students for the professional fields. And as a result, the rate of school drop out in China, compared to Britain, is slightly lower.

In conclusion, through the comparison of the two countries, we can establish that in all the countries education acts as an essential thing that the governments believe can improve the status of the nations. However, a closer comparison and contrast between the two countries have made me think that the education system is a bit superior to the UK. First, the cost of education in China is better than the UK because China offers the students affordable learning that provides the students equal opportunities, both the ones that are from low-income families and the ones that able to afford the tuition fees. The second part is the students’ development, in this part, the paper established that the students are helped in personal development more conveniently in China than in the UK because China offers the early endorsement to the professional fields and more comfortably as compared to the UK. The third part that we considered was the attitude of the students to the education system, and we managed to prove that, the students from China are delighted by the lack of national examinations, and the general education system. As a result, they recorded fewer dropout cases as compared to the counterpart UK students.

Reference:

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