A friend of mine who is a primary school teacher complained to me the other day that she couldn't find a distinguished scholar or a celebrated scientist to lecture to her students.

When I asked why she didn't just find an ordinary worker or company staff member to talk to the students, she was so surprised by the suggestion and after a pause, she said the pupils would learn much less from ordinary people than from a member of the elites.

Maybe that is why in China there are so many university students who would rather stay at home instead of taking a blue-collar job, and why so many of them feel depressed when stepping out into society.

China's education is imbuing the students from the very start with the concept that they should try to be the most distinguished or the most successful.

I remember once reading in a book that in some primary schools in America, the teacher would sometimes ask an ordinary fireman or a nurse to talk to the pupils. Yet in Shanghai, if a nurse is asked to give a lecture, she must be at least a model nurse in the hospital if not the winner of the Nightingale Prize. It might be a little overstated, but the situation is like that.

Our education system hopes that everyone could become a scientist or expert, but surely only a few will become really successful. Reports about youth suicide after experiencing career setbacks are not rare in China today. The education system may have something to do with that.

My friend argued back saying that primary education in Shanghai was not lagging behind that of other countries, even developed countries. She cited the fact that Shanghai pupils can speak more English than their counterparts in Hong Kong or Singapore.

Admittedly, Chinese students usually perform better. Reports of Chinese students winning the world's Maths Olympic Games are not rare but such results do not mean that Chinese education is the best, neither does it mean that Chinese students are more capable.

A foreign friend told me that in his country, every first grade pupil gets a card to borrow books from the city's library. The teachers ask the children to borrow four to five books every week. The pupils have to go through the form-filling processes to take the books out of the library on their own. During the classes, they would be asked to tell which book is their favourite and why.

But in many schools in Shanghai, the first grade pupils don't even get a card for their own school's library, with the worry that they are too young to use the card, or they might lose the books or damage them. The real practices of education are sorely lacking in China, which only churns out, year after year, graduates who have grandiose ambitions but puny abilities.

The most direct evidence is the large number of young people who can't find a job after graduation at the same time as many companies are complaining they can't find the people they want.

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