How UK and China’s Differing Education System Shapes Us Into Different People

Western creativity versus Asian discipline

“Teach a man how to fish, and you feed him for his lifetime”.

This is part of an old Chinese proverb that perfectly summarizes why we receive an education. When we obtain knowledge, we can use it to benefit ourselves without relying on others.

We spend time thinking intensely about our own education but pay little attention to the education of others. At university, I noticed that international Asian students excelled at science but struggled with group work. Looking further into it, I realised how different the education systems were between China and the UK.

Western creativity

I’ve been schooled in the UK for, well, the entirety of my life and I’ve realised that UK’s education system fosters creativity. Using high school (6th to 10th grade) as an example, art, music and drama classes all make a cameo at some point. There is no ‘right’ answer in these subjects — it depends on how a student expresses themselves. My ideology of a fantastic piece of art will differ to yours. It is not like math or science where there is only one answer whichever way you look at it: 2+3 always equals 5.

Throughout Western education, group work plays a big part of our curriculum. Yet I only understood the true goal to promote idea sharing and interpersonal learning post-graduation. You may hate group work because everyone else’s ideas are wrong and your ideas are always right, but you cannot deny it encourages expression and creative thinking. Group work often involves an intentionally ambiguous task e.g. designing a poster, where there are multiple solutions to address the task.

This is of stark contrast to education in China, where individual performance reigns supreme. The teacher presents a question, you solve it, another question is presented, you solve it — alone. These questions only have one answer, cultivating a black/white methodical approach but also one devoid of creativity. Every student learns the same method to get the same answer.

Asian discipline

If you ask me the most important skill for success, I would say discipline. Doing things when you don’t feel like it, not only when you feel like doing it.

In China, nothing trains discipline, like studying for the Gaokao exam — the most important and notorious university exam that decides the fate of millions of students each year. “Gaokao” literally translates to “high exam” and it is no joke. A 2-day exam lasting 10 hours, it is one of the toughest exams — in the world.

Gaokao is the sole criteria which determines what university you get into, an all or nothing approach. I’m probably sounding dramatic but it’s true. Having a glowing personality, captaining the local sports team and playing 5 instruments will not help you.

China’s education system doesn’t gently promote discipline, it forces discipline out under immense pressure. These students spend 10 hours at school and up to 6 hours at home studying. And it does pay off. According to the International Student Assessment, China tops the world in maths, science and reading. This brings obvious benefits to the country when its growth is fueled by some of the smartest people in the world.

But the growth of the country comes at a cost to the person. Countless years spent memorising the same answers, learning the same facts and adopting the same revision technique as everyone else saps every last ounce of creativity from you. Your brain is crammed with so much information there is no room for free thought. Asian students are trained to be almost machine-like. Machines are wonderful; they are smart, efficient and get the job done. But it’s the creativity of the man who designs the machines.

Interestingly, there has been a growing trend in China where young people are exploring their creative side outside of studying through interests like self-improvement, investing and gaming.

Which education system is better?

Neither. Both countries need to incorporate more aspects of each other.

On one side of the world, you have the UK and its ‘creative’ education system. People are encouraged to think for themselves, pursue their own passions, and think of innovative ways to make money such as cryptocurrency or content creation — none of which are taught in school. Being in an education system that rewards creativity has seen the UK produce wonderful authors such as H.G. Wells and J.K. Rowling. I’m sure China also has fantastic authors, but these are authors whose creative work has touched the hearts of millions of people around the world.

The problem is, if we directly compare the two education systems, UK’s education is too ‘lax’. I by no means think that UK’s education system is easy, but it is ‘comfortable’. Which is part of the problem.

In the cut-throat world of work, ‘creativity’ is less likely to lead to success than ‘discipline’. For most jobs, you are taught to do things a certain way and you must do them that way — there is little room for creativity. As a pharmacist, when I recommend a medicine to treat a disease, I don’t start being creative and think “Ooh, let’s try to treat this heart condition with an inhaler”. Maths and science are less ‘creative’ than arts and music, but they often lead to higher paid careers.

Why am I telling you this?

Education shapes a person. The biggest value of education is not the technical knowledge but the soft skills you learn and cultivate in the background e.g. self-discipline, communication, and innovation.

Because let’s be honest, most technical knowledge you learn at school is useless. You don’t need to use Pythagoras’ theorem when you’re buying groceries at the supermarket. You don’t need to understand Newton’s second law to drive a car. Not to mention we have memories like goldfish. If you can remember even 10% of all you have ever learnt, that is incredible. Most of us forget what we had for breakfast 2 days ago.

But education does influence what type of person we evolve into. The creative teachings of Western countries mean that people dare to take risks and innovate. The discipline from Asian education forges a strong work ethic to trawl through the mud when the going gets tough.

Final Thought

Discipline will change your life; creativity will enrich your life.

I am fairly creative; I appreciate music and creative writing. But I am also disciplined enough to work on my own projects after work and getting stuff done — no matter how boring the task.

Having been educated in the West, one day I hope to study in China to experience the ‘hardships’ of education through their lens. It might be difficult, but hardships drive change — usually for the better.