'Pupils must learn respect and discipline, just like the Chinese' - Devastating assessment of UK learning from West Midlands educationalist

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to China has inevitably reopened a wider conversation about how the West understands progress, power and the future.

As an education policy expert, I welcome this.

For me, the visit also revives a much more fundamental question: why do China and India continue to outperform the West in education – not just academically, but socially and culturally as well? 

This is not an abstract debate. I learnt much of this firsthand while working on a BBC documentary feature that took me deep into classrooms, campuses and communities in both these countries.

The core difference lies not in funding or facilities, but in philosophy. Western education systems are increasingly shaped by individualism. We emphasise children’s rights, personal expression and self-esteem, often at the expense of responsibility, discipline and duty.

In contrast, China and India see education as a collective national project. The child is not merely an individual consumer of services, but a future citizen with obligations to family, community and country.

In China especially, discipline is not a dirty word. Schools prioritise structure, routine and respect for authority. This is not about suppressing individuality, as critics often claim, but about creating the conditions in which learning can flourish. Classrooms are orderly. Teachers are respected. Students understand that effort matters more than entitlement. The result is not fear, but focus.

Equally striking is the emphasis on physical and mental health. Chinese and Indian schools integrate regular physical exercise into their curricula, understanding the link between bodily discipline and cognitive performance. Mental resilience is actively cultivated, not through endless therapeutic language, but through challenge, perseverance and clear expectations.

They value silence, contemplation and meditation. By contrast, Western systems often medicalise normal stress while removing the very pressures that help young people develop strength.

Perhaps the most telling difference is China’s approach to social media. While Western societies hand smartphones to children with barely a second thought, China restricts access because it recognises how social media corrodes attention, distorts identity and weakens social bonds. This is not technophobia; it is social responsibility. The West talks endlessly about ‘online safety’ yet refuses to confront the commercial interests and cultural habits that are clearly damaging young minds. I’m, therefore, pleased that Australia is copying China by banning social media for under 16s.

India, meanwhile, offers a complementary model. Its education system places enormous value on academic rigour, particularly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Creativity is not dismissed, but it is grounded in mastery. You earn the right to innovate by first learning the fundamentals. In the West, we often reverse this logic – celebrating creativity while neglecting knowledge, process and precision. The result – as far as I can see – is confidence without competence.

During my documentary work, what struck me beyond the classroom was the wider social environment these systems produce. There was visible order, lower levels of everyday crime, and a strong culture of cleanliness and civic pride. These are not accidents. They are downstream effects of an education system that consistently reinforces responsibility, respect and collective standards.

None of this is to argue that China or India are flawless, or that the West should blindly copy their systems. But it is increasingly clear that Western education is suffering from ideological imbalance. 

By prioritising individual feelings over shared values, rights over responsibilities, and expression over effort, we are undermining the very foundations of learning. Whilst we focus on identity politics, sexuality, and the undermining of grand narratives and traditions, China and India are focusing on commerce, science, and industry.

If Prime Minister Starmer’s engagement with China is to mean anything beyond trade and diplomacy, it should prompt a serious rethinking of what education is for. China and India understand that education is not just about personal fulfilment – it is about national survival, social cohesion and long-term strength. Until we in the West relearn that lesson, no amount of reform rhetoric will close the gap.

* Roshan Doug is an educationalist and a former Birmingham Poet Laureate