China to implement new labor curriculum standards to teach children basic life skills
China's Ministry of Education issued Labor Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education (2022 Edition) on March 25, which is aimed at teaching children basic life skills and will be implemented this fall semester.
A major change in the new curriculum standard is to completely separate labor and information technology from the comprehensive practical activity curriculum. The standard sets up 10 task groups with an average of no less than one class hour for labor per week.
Starting this September, children will be taught basic life skills such as cleaning, sorting and putting things away, cooking, as well as using and maintaining household appliances.
Both parents and children are looking forward to the implementation of the new labor curriculum standards.
"I believe it’s very good for children's physical and mental health and is useful in cultivating children’s practical ability," said Qi Lei, a parent from Taiyuan City of north China's Shanxi Province.
"I think offering some labor lessons such as planting some crops for children to gain personal experience will strengthen their hands-on ability and also contribute to their intellectual development," said Gong Yongfang, another parent from Taiyuan.
"Children growing up in cities can't do a lot of things. I think these practical activities will make children more responsible than before," said Ms Huang, a parent from south China's Guangdong Province.
"I want to take a home appliances maintenance course because when I grow up I can fix the broken appliances at home without paying for them," said Guo Yuze, a fifth grade pupil in Nanjing City of east China's Jiangsu Province.
"I'm looking forward to the planting class because the fruit is delicious and I’ll have a sense of accomplishment when I grow it successfully," said Zhu Yuqian, another fifth grader in Nanjing.
"I want to learn cooking, because I am not very good at it. At least I can cook for myself and also for my parents (after taking the cooking class)," said an elementary school pupil in Beijing.