China's English fervor under scrutiny(3)

"English learning can broaden children's horizons and help them understand a different culture," said Chen Weiping, father of an eight-year-old in Beijing, who opposed Wang's call to scrap English classes in primary schools.

"It's totally fine for primary school students to study English. Just don't give them too many exams," he said.

Li Dazhi, educator at the China Association of Higher Education, said China began to stress English learning after the Cultural Revolution, when the country, plagued by low domestic productivity, aspired to learn from the Western world.

"The English fervor is not a bad thing. It illustrates the ambition and the open minds of the Chinese people and that we hope to embrace the world and learn from foreign countries," he said.

But Li also said that China's test-oriented English education was hardly successful in making young students more internationalized.

"I found many college students had good scores in English exams but were actually 'deaf and dumb' in English communication, and many of them knew little about Western culture," Li said.

Last month, the Ministry of Education issued the second draft of a regulation on reducing students' academic burden. It suggests banning unified English examinations in primary schools in an attempt to make English education less test-oriented.

Experts and the public have generally hailed the initiative, saying it will help lighten the students' burdens while freeing English classes from exams so they can focus on cultural and practical aspects.