Sound bites

"I don't think British students are as flaky toward school education as shown in the BBC documentary. They are competitive and they care about academic performance. One of my classmates once asked to retake the exam after he got a seat in the intermediate class. He wanted to win a place in the advanced class."

Xiao Wu, a 29-year-old native of Wuhan, Hubei pro-vince, who attended a high school exchange in the UK at age 16

"In the British way, we encourage children to reflect on a situation and think for themselves rather than giving them the answer to solve one problem, which will make them less independent."