Textbooks to include more about culture

Roughly 15 percent of the content was deleted to avoid overworking students

China has revised its primary and secondary school textbooks to include more about ancient poetry and traditional culture.

"Our Chinese textbooks lack content on traditional culture. This revision will go some way to making up the shortfall," said Wang Xuming, president of the Language and Culture Press.

Eighteen textbooks used by students from Hunan, Henan, Guangdong, Liaoning and other provincial-level regions, were revised in accordance with government guidelines.

The revised textbooks for primary school now have 30 percent of their content related to traditional culture, while for secondary schools it increased to about 40 percent, Wang said.

Meanwhile, the revised textbooks will try to immerse students in traditional Chinese culture by putting emphasis on oral communication and writing ability.

The updated textbooks will be used by more than 4 million students in the first and seventh grades across the country starting this fall, Wang said.

Sun Shaozhen, a professor at the College of Chinese Language and Literature of Fujian Normal University, said the new textbooks will help inspire young people and give them a sense of national identity.

The Chinese textbooks used in Beijing meet the standard, according to staff at the Research Institute of Education on Chinese Language under Beijing Normal University, which is responsible for compiling those Chinese textbooks.

Reducing students' workload was also taken into account during the revision process. About 15 percent of the content from the books was deleted in order to avoid overworking students.

Xinhua contributed to this story.

(China Daily 05/25/2016 page4)