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Coronavirus in China: some PE tests scrapped for high school entrance exams
- After latest Covid wave, Shanghai is first major city to suspend physical education tests for children
- Parents, teachers worried about stress on health of pupils recently infected with Covid
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Sylvie Zhuangin Beijing
Shanghai has become the first major city in China to scrap a physical education (PE) test for the high school entrance exam because of concerns over lingering health effects from Covid-19 infections.
The announcement on Tuesday came after local lawmakers and parents called to have the test – scheduled for April or May – cancelled over worries that students had not fully recovered from the latest wave of coronavirus infections that swept across the country after China abandoned its zero-Covid policy.
Public health experts have estimated that 80 per cent of the population had been infected since the restrictions were eased.
Last month Shi Zheng, a deputy in the Shanghai People’s Congress, said she advised that the test be cancelled because strenuous exercise would not be suitable for students still recovering from infections, according to a report by local news portal The Paper.
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Many parents had raised concerns to local education officials that daily fitness activities, particularly the cardio-intensive exercises, would be dangerous for children who had just recovered from Covid-19, the report said.
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On Tuesday, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission announced that the PE test would be suspended this year and that all students would receive a full score for that portion of the entrance exam.
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Similar concerns had been raised by parents elsewhere in the country.
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