The high school entrance exams(中考) for Chinese Junior 3 students are mainly about academic(学术类的) subjects, such as math and Chinese. But starting from 2022, they will be texted in areas like music and art.
On Oct.16, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said that fine arts will be included in high school entrance exams in more provinces and cities by 2022.Twelve cities in six provinces have already started the practice, including Nanjing and Qingdao. The scores for these subjects are from 10 to 40 points.
This is being done to encourage primary and secondary schools to provide more fine arts classes. They should cover subjects such as music, painting, dance and opera.
"Aesthetic education is not just about teaching students how to paint, sing or dance-it's about the ability appreciate artistic beauty, which is very important for students' mental health, "Fan Di'an, president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, told China Daily.
However, the change has caused heated discussion. Many students and their parents worry about this new policy will bring too much work for students. They think that since students already have heavy academic workloads, adding new testing material would make things worse.
It was also pointed out that not every student would be talented enough to be good at these subjects. "It's really hard for me to remember melodies. So l need to do extra practice before music tests," Zhao Hanfang, a 15-year-old student from Yunnan, told TEENS." So if music is included in the high school entrance exams, I might be too much stressed."
