Summary

China’s State Council has issued guidelines on strengthening physical education and art education in the country’s schools and other education institutions. The guidelines aim to introduce their respective changes by 2022.

The guidelines call for education in both art and physical education to be strengthened, including an increase in class hours and the number of specialist teachers, along with improvements to infrastructure / facilities in both subject areas.

PE will be integrated into assessment criteria and made a graduation requirement at the basic education level, while the same is true of art at the primary and lower secondary levels with an additional goal to explore the feasibility of including art subjects into the Gaokao and the high school entrance examination. HE institutions should integrate physical education into their undergraduate training and are encouraged to also do so for postgraduates.

To further encourage the development of physical education, schools sports clubs and intra- and inter-school competitions will be encouraged, while international cooperation and teacher exchanges will be promoted. Curriculum reform for art will emphasise promoting integration between art and other subject areas, while teaching materials will be strengthened.

Analysis by Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst, International Education Services

The creative arts are increasingly important to Chinese students, with this subject area having a faster increase in students coming to the UK than any other major field of study over the past five years. The planned improvements to art education and expansion of teaching hours may reinforce this trend over the medium to long term.

The new guidelines’ encouragement of international cooperation on PE teaching may also open some opportunities for UK-China cooperation, but the announcements will otherwise have relatively little direct impact on UK institutions.

Source:

Gov.cn: CCP Central Committee and State Council Issue "Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening and Improving School Sports Work in the New Era" and "Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening and Improving School Aesthetic Education in the New Era" (in Chinese) – http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xxgk/moe_1777/moe_1778/202010/t20201015_494794.html