Huawei Founder: English Education Key to Rural Children's Future

Related article：College English Test results no longer mandatory requirement for

Not learning English means that children from rural areas will always be farmers. If you don't learn English, how will you get employed in the future, Chinese tech giant Huawei's founder, Ren Zhengfei, said during an interview in July that was published on Thursday. Xi’an Jiaotong University's recent announcement that it won’t require mandatory College English Test results has sparked heated discussions online.

College English Test (CET) Band 4 and Band 6 are no longer a mandatory requirement for undergraduate students to graduate or obtain their bachelors’ degrees, Xi’an Jiaotong University, a national key university in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province said.

According to a statement released by the university, the college council for the undergraduate students has decided that taking part in or passing the CET Band 4 or Band 6 testing, or any other English proficiency tests inside or outside the campus will not be a mandatory requirement for undergraduate students to obtain their bachelors’ degrees starting from September 1, 2023. 

“Some people say you shouldn't study mathematics. However, if you are not good at both mathematics and English, you won't be able to enter high-end industries,’’ Ren said. Ren noted that he understands that there might be difficulty in learning English in rural areas. “But if you can endure it for a while, won't you overcome it finally? It’s possible that the person’s spoken expression isn't that good, but it’s also fine to have the ability to recognize text.’’

Ren also stressed the importance to “teach according to students' aptitude,” and not to overemphasize the “starting line.”

CET is a national standardized English language test for college and university students in China, which has been in operation since 1987 as an assessment tool to see whether the students have met the curriculum requirements of their compulsory college English course. 

The test’s overall pass rate varies greatly among different levels of Chinese colleges and universities. Statistics show that the pass rate of CET-4 for students from key universities can be as high as 70 percent to 80 percent, whereas the pass rate for students from average universities is just around 40 percent. 

A faculty member from the university confirmed the decision on Thursday and said that it is a reasonable decision since other universities also have implemented similar policies.

The university’s decision soon sparked heated discussions online since the English proficiency test result as a compulsory requirement for all the non-English-major students in Chinese colleges and universities to graduate has long been a controversy. 

Editor: CH

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