China's Ministry of Education is launching a reform to update the
teaching materials currently used in preliminary and secondary
schools to make them more practical, officials said in Jinan
Wednesday.
To
achieve this the ministry will first change the form and content of
the university entrance examination. The examination is the major
part of China's mark-orientated educational evaluation system and
has a major influence on the day-to-day teaching in schools.
Officials said many textbooks used in China's universities and
secondary schools were compiled several decades ago. They are now
obsolete and not suitable for the country's rapid social and
technological development. As a result, the quality of China's
education is lagging behind that of advanced countries.
In
addition, China has concentrated more on theory than application.
Students may grasp the theories of algebra and geometry very well
but are not good at using these theories to solve practical
problems.
Therefore, teaching materials must be changed to apply to life in
the real world.
(
December 12, 2001)