Premier Li Keqiang has stressed recently that China would strive to balance the distribution of educational resources, properly reform the entrance exam approach and accelerate the building of an employment-oriented modern vocational education system to boost education quality and fairness.

China's educational reforms laid out in the government work report at the ongoing annual session of China's top legislature has drawn wide applause and helpful advice from education experts and professionals worldwide.

Dialogue 1

Xinhua: What impresses you most about China's education and Chinese students? What advantages and problems do you think China has in education?

"What impresses me most is that Chinese students are well organized and disciplined. We should learn from them," said Mariana Escalante, a lecturer on Chinese language at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

"When I was studying at Peking University, I found their capabilities in memorizing textbook knowledge are mind blowing. I even wondered whether they were born with special abilities," she added.

Meanwhile, Escalante suggested that the teacher-student relationship be more natural. While maintaining their authority, teachers should increase interaction and students' participation to encourage students to more actively express their ideas and queries.

Alicia Relinque, a professor in the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting in the University of Granada, said she was deeply impressed by Chinese teachers' devotion to teaching and the students' respect for their teachers.

"The education system in China is well planned, especially the curriculum in primary and secondary schools," said the professor. "It can ensure the all-round development of students."

But she also said Chinese students should be relieved from the overloads of homework and after-school learning programs.

Kim Goun, a research fellow at Seoul National University, said Chinese exam-oriented education should be transformed to improve students' integrated quality. The researcher stressed China's higher education entrance exams should focus more on personal talents.

Dialogue 2

Xinhua: How does China's educational model differ from that in your country? What can China learn from the experience of your country in education? What should China do to meet international standard?

Annastasia Troshina, a mandarin teacher at School 1583 in Moscow said Chinese teachers too strictly stick to teaching plan to allow proper flexibilities in classes.

Such an approach tends to ignore personalities of students and their interests, Troshina added.

In Russia, teachers can encouraged to make their own teaching plan taking into students' interests and talents, Troshina said.

"I think education programs should strike a balance between curriculum planning and students' interests and talents," the teacher suggested.

Stephane Phetsinorath, who works for BioMerieux, a French company, said China should forge its own educational system, avoiding duplicating that of the West.

"With more frequent academic exchanges and more teachers coming to China from different places around the world, Chinese universities are becoming increasingly open to the outside world," said the employee who graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University.

Phetsinorath also said his experience told him that Chinese students should improve their creativity and proactivity to better adapt themselves to the labor market.

Dialogue 3

Xinhua: At the ongoing "two sessions," China's education reforms focused on such topics as how to promote education fairness, balance distribution of educational resources, and transform the admission exam system. What impact do you think such policies will have on China's development?

Nazia Vasi, president of the Inchin Closer School, a school that teaches Chinese in India, said the two sessions will have a huge influence on China's educational reforms.

"It is widely known that China has been a manufacturing center of the world and its educational reforms can help cultivate more top-level talents for manufacturing industry and service and financial sectors," Vasi said.

Richard Trappl, dean of the Confucius Institute at the University of Vienna, said China's recent developments have, to a large extent, benefited from its commitment to education.

"With the advance of its urbanization process, China should pay more attention to education in its rural and remote areas. If talented and competent people are deprived of their opportunities due to poverty, it would be a tragedy," the dean said.

"China should guarantee equal educational opportunity to all children to produce more talents with social responsibility and global vision," Trappl added.