Class ideology: China’s education chiefs order schools to roll out patriotic campaign on new media
Push to extend to pupils’ extracurricular activities as authorities seek ever-tighter grip on education
The mainland’s Ministry of Education has ordered an across-the-board patriotic campaign via new media as part of its bigger push to tighten its grip over ideological education.
State-run Xinhua reported on Tuesday that the ministry had ordered schools of all levels to launch in-depth “patriotic education with new media such as Weibo and WeChat”.
Citing a ministry notice dated January, the report said schools of all grades and categories were told to overhaul patriotic education and extend it to extracurricular activities, covering pupils’ online and offline lives.
Schools were also asked to merge patriotism into university, secondary and primary school exams and courses for ethics, Chinese language, history, geography, physical education and the arts.
READ MORE: Enemy infiltrators targeting China’s students and teachers, education chief says
Tertiary institutions would also need to link patriotic education to professional education to ensure talent was nurtured from all dimensions.