Comparison of the Educational System between China and Canada

Canada implements a similar educational system to the United States. With the relatively abundant educational resources, the students are spared from the great pressure of entrance examinations to junior high school, senior high school and college. They can choose subjects out of interest in a free and open learning environment. The cultivating principle universally acknowledged in China that “the more knowledge you acquire, the more excellent you are” is not a rigid standard in North America. The United States and Canada give more recognition to “a man of honesty, integrity and social responsibility”.

In view of the essential difference, the curriculum gives top priority to the cultivation of character ever since kindergarten education. The development of creativity is also highly emphasized in accordance with advanced theories of children growth. When we asked children what they do in the kindergarten, they said playing. But the games and recreations are actually scientifically designed. In primary school the curriculum focuses on teaching knowledge and cultivating abilities to cooperate and survive. Pupils in Canada seem to learn so little in our eyes. In middle school, however, the school provides courses of personal development planning besides knowledge, so all students start a part-time job at the age of 16. In addition, it is the focus of middle school in teaching as to how to have access to the information we need with all resources available (Battiste 19). Library, Internet and friends can all be the means of acquiring information. In the mainland, middle school students are required to “master” and most of the knowledge should be recited. When middle school students in the mainland throw themselves in reciting, students in Canadian middle schools make extensive reading for information to complete their assignments in groups or individually. For instance, a Canadian middle school may provide more than 200 interest courses. After teaching the ingredients and nutrients of common foods, the nutrition teacher would leave assignment and ask the students to design a one-week dietary, for which the students would select and collocate the foods carefully and calculate the nutrition required (Wotherspoon 29). A dietary includes all the knowledge points that the teacher wants the students to master, which enables the students to apply what they learned in practice.

When developing a correct attitude to life, knowing how to plan their life and finding their interests before the courses complete, the Canadian parents needn’t to worry about their children when they complete middle school education as to if they should take university entrance exam, what university they should attend and what specialty they should choose. What parents need to do is make suggestions. If their children are not ready for higher education yet, they may take practical courses for a couple of months (such as vehicle maintenance and repair) before getting a job, or travel around first before making plans for the next stage. Children, however, have their own ideas, and they will not make decisions for their life blindly following the opinions of others.

With the parallel vocational education, middle schools in the mainland operate with clear goals – to focus on elite education and supply talents for universities. Its mass education is very weak, however. As a matter of fact, a vast number of ordinary middle school graduates go to work. Their interests and needs are not well taken into account in middle school. Ordinary middle school puts emphasis on academy and intellectual education. “All-round development of morality, intelligence and physique” is merely a slogan. The heated chase after “Mathematical Olympiad” in recent years is a case in point. Canada middle school's goal is to cultivate talents able to survive the society and train professionals for all walks of life. Making preparations for students who have plans for higher education is not a primary but just one of its tasks (173). Therefore, it should be defined as mass education-based and elite education-complemented. Canadian middle school pays attention to all-round development, diversification, independence, ability to survive the society, a caring mind, teamwork spirit and leadership skills, but its intellectual education is rather weak. In China, employment-oriented students accompany those having plans for higher education while in the west it is just the opposite, neither of which is reasonable. The open education in the west produces a very few number of top talents but misleads a great number of ordinary students.

Of all the developed countries, Canada is the only one that has not made education industrialized. Every year, there are about 300,000 people from 150 countries migrating to Canada – a country of immigrants. The immigrants come for their next generation who will receive good education. Canada enjoys a solid educational foundation and world-leading educational level, which is the major reason for attracting immigrants from all over the world，and like many key resource industries, education might just be another important industry that should be privatized too much.