Parents concerned over education ministry instruction

[Photo: from VCG]

A ministry document released on Friday instructs schools across the country to ensure each student has a fair opportunity to enjoy a quality education.

Among the guidelines are promoting the practice of enrolling students, without testing, to schools as close to their homes as possible and encouraging schools to admit students by random selection.

One item requires primary and middle schools to reduce the proportion of students recruited based on their special talents and to cancel such admission programs by 2020.

Meanwhile, the ministry has asked high schools to stop adding extra points to middle school graduates' exam scores for their special talents, such as in sports and the arts. The rule will affect students going to middle schools in September this year.

Fiona Xu, the mother of an 11-year-old girl set to start middle school in September, said: "I'm really upset to hear about the news as my daughter loves traditional Chinese arts and she has spent a lot of time on arts since she was 3. She will have no advantage against her competitors who are good at academic studies if her special talents are not taken into consideration."

Xu said her daughter had been learning Chinese painting, sketching and calligraphy, and playing the erhu (Chinese fiddle) and bamboo flute. She spends seven hours a week studying at training organizations and another 1.5 hours a day practicing at home.

Xu said she would not stop her daughter continuing her artistic training because she is truly enthusiastic about arts.

"She learns arts not only for school application but for her whole life," she said. 

[The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI] 

(News source: Sohu.com)