A group of new courses will be launched in some elementary and middle schools from the coming autumn semester, as part of China's experiment on reforming courses.
The new courses including science, history and society, sports and health, art, and comprehensive practical activities, will bring a brand-new course schedule to the students. Altogether 49 new courses in 20 subjects will be put on probation in this reform experiment.
The new teaching scheme puts emphasis on the comprehensiveness of courses. By strengthening the link between course content and students’ lives, it will help students form an active and initiative studying attitude. It will also assist students to develop correct values while acquiring basic knowledge and skills.
New management methods coupled with the new courses will attach more importance to the function of schools and local educational departments. Besides courses regulated by the state, provincial education administrative departments can also develop or select suitable courses depending on the situations in local social and economic development.
According to the Ministry of Education's general program, local and school-selected courses can occupy 16 percent to 20 percent of the total class hours, compared with 80 to 84 percent of state- selected courses.
The experiment will first be piloted in 38 cities and counties in 27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. It is expected that the new courses will be popularized throughout the country by 2004.
(People’s Daily 08/08/2001)
