THE national university entrance exam or "gao kao" as it is called in Chinese, is again grabbing the attention of the whole nation. British documentary filmmaker Richard Hughes sees its significance and talks to the Shanghai Star about his observations.

SS: When did you first learn of the national university entrance exam in China and how?

RH: When I first came to China as an English teacher at a small university in Shandong in 1999, I had not realized how few students in China get the chance to go to a university here, nor how harsh the competition is to get into good schools. After I came to Shanghai in 2001 I began to learn just how competitive getting into university is, how much the education system emphasizes cramming facts and totally discourages critical thinking, and how the gao kao is the ultimate expression of that as well as the worst day of most young people's lives.

SS: What do you know about the exam now?

RH: The thing I mainly find depressing is how the whole family becomes completely consumed with their child's gao kao for that whole year. Also, another shocking thing about the gao kao is how people choose their university. It seems like such a complete lottery, depending a lot on how lucky you are. That's crazy. I know China has a very large population, but it can't treat its most talented young people as if they are just meat for the system to treat as it wants.

SS: What impact do you see the exam as having on the Chinese society?

RH: All this pressure on single children... will increase as China's middle class grows - until it becomes like somewhere really crazy like Korea or Japan, with kids killing themselves because they've failed and so on, and where what you studied at university doesn't matter at all, its just the name of the university you went to. In fact, China is already like this, which is really, really unhealthy. The system is going to make generations of very unhealthy people, who can recite facts but not think, and who can sit at a desk for 20 hours but lack basic social skills. As China's economy develops it will need a generation of young people able to work effectively as its managers - so an education system which discourages critical thinking is a serious impediment. Very serious!

SS: How do you find the gao kao different from the system in your home country?

RH: It is very different. In the UK a lot of emphasis is now placed on coursework and projects that a student does throughout their time studying, not all on exams over two days. Also I think it's fair to say that the entire education system... is very different. In most Western countries, we are encouraged to think, discuss, and act, and this usually starts young... This difference is partly due to the Confucian tradition of learning - teacher talks, students listen - but not completely. It is also something even some Chinese educators know is due to old-fashioned attitudes amongst schools and teachers... I think that in some ways the 'softness' of the system in the UK has gone too far the other way... education in the UK is heading for some serious problems, but of the opposite kind to China - too much critical thinking, not enough knowledge. I think if China can change its system to a serious extent without losing the factual roots it has now, it could be a perfect system.