A group of Chinese teachers have blamed the generosity of Britain's benefit system for causing British school students to become idle, ill-discipline, as well as lacking ambition.
The teachers came to the UK as part of the BBC Two documentary, 'Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School.' The teachers spent 4 weeks at Bohunt School in Liphook, Hampshire, teaching a group of 50 children aged 13 and 14.
The Chinese teachers taught up to 12 hours a day and found the students to be disruptive and lacked concentration. They blamed the welfare state of Britain for the students' mindset.
One of the teachers, Wei Zhao said, “Even if they don't work, they can get money, they don't worry about it. But in China they can't get these things so they know, 'I need to study hard, I need to work hard to get money to support my family.' If the British Government really cut benefits down to force people to go to work they might see things in a different way.”
Another teacher, Li Aiyun said, “When I handed out the homework sheets, I expected everybody to be concentrated on the homework. But when I walked in the classroom some students were chatting, some students were eating, somebody was even putting make-up on her face. I had to control myself, or I would be crazy.”
Science teacher, Yang Jun said, “In China we don't need classroom management skills because everyone is disciplined by nature, by families, by society. Whereas here it is the most challenging part of teaching.”
Yang Jun was left confused when a schoolgirl left the classroom, crying after getting to know that singer Zayn Malik had left the boy band, One Direction. “I found it difficult to understand such emotional behaviour over a pop band.”
However, headteacher Neil Strowger, does not approve with the Chinese method of teaching, and found the technique to be “mind-numbingly boring”. He said, “If you visited my school in the week when cameras were not there you would not see behaviour like that. There is no low-level disruption. However, if you go into a class and do not treat the students with respect then you are going to get problems.”
Neil Strowger added, “I don't believe we are somehow causing our children to fail by having a welfare state.”
