On May 18, the Ministry of Education released a reform proposal, stating that the English test will be removed from the gaokao (National College Entrance Examinations) in 2017, which has triggered a heated debate.

    In my opinion, there is no denying that the reform does benefit students to a certain extent. First, the plan to ditch the English test from the gaokao is an effective way to relieve the students’ burdens under the test-oriented educational system. Second, the policy emphasizes the importance of other subjects, enabling students to have more time developing other skills. Last but not least, as people use more nonstandard expressions and add English words into daily Chinese, their ability to speak grammatically correct and easily understood Chinese is decreasing. This phenomenon has aroused the attention of experts and authorities in the education field on the use and development of our mother tongue. Therefore, this reform can make students pay more attention to their mother language and help improve their Chinese language skills.

    However, every coin has two sides. I think the reform still has potential disadvantages. For one thing, English is undeniably a widely used language, not only in world business and trade, but also in daily life. Therefore, if learning English is not compulsory in the future, students may neglect the study of English and may find their lives inconvenienced in many aspects. For another, as English is a useful communication tool in world business and trade, the reform may lead to fewer people learning English, which may slow China’s business expansion around the world.

    So, do the advantages of the reform outweigh its disadvantages? I do not think this is a question that can be simply answered. However, as a middle school student, I think English is a useful language that is worthwhile for us to learn. If English is no more a compulsory course, we should still try our best to learn it well. Otherwise, we may meet tremendous difficulties while hunting for a job, traveling around the world or even buying imported products.