Political education back on track

BEIJING: After admitting last year that political education for university students in China was outdated and unfashionable, the education minister changed track and said the classes were now so popular, seats were as hard to get as train tickets at lunar new year.

Beijing has campaigned against the spread of “Western values” at universities, and the ruling Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog has sent inspectors to monitor teachers for “improper” remarks in class.

Speaking on the sidelines of the annual meeting of last year’s parliament session, Education Minister Chen Baosheng said students were often there in body but not spirit at political education courses, in a rare admission of the difficulties faced enforcing a key government policy.

But in the last year, there had been big changes, Chen said at his annual news conference coinciding with this year’s parliamentary meeting.

The ministry had sent more than 200 experts in political education into more than 2,500 higher education establishments and sat in on more than 3,000 classes, Chen said.

Questionnaires were given to more than 30,000 students of whom more than 91% said they now found the classes “edifying”, he added.

“In some schools’ political education classes, getting in is like getting a ticket for the high speed rail over Spring Festival,” Chen said, referring to the lunar new year.

“With the hard work of the last year, there’s been a massive change. But we clearly recognise that these results are initial ones, and they need to be further strengthened and consolidated.” — Reuters