Page 61 - EW March 2021

tion. In 2017, primary and secondary schools were ordered
to hire only specialists to teach PE and art. In October, they
were directed to organise daily gym classes; to include PE
and art in the z hongk ao; and to make pupils’ graduation
conditional on their fitness (it did not say how to assess
this). The government says it wants to foster a “lifelong
habit of exercise” and, through art, “noble sentiments”.
The government worries about how many youngsters
are in poor shape. In 2017, officials in the southern city of
Guangzhou found only 2.6 percent of local children were in
“excellent” health. Half of pupils surveyed there had myo-
pia. Today one in five Chinese children is overweight, up
from just one in 20 in 1995. Such statistics fan another fear:
that today’s youngsters, and boys in particular, are over-
indulged wimps. The state news agency, Xinhua, grimly President Biden: quick rebound
summed it up with a headline: ‘Why Good Times Produce
Weak Children’. demia that President Biden will bring substantial positive
In 2018, many parents were upset that a children’s change in US treatment of people born abroad. A prelimi-
show — co-produced by the education ministry, ironically nary report from Common App, which serves some 900
— featured male pop stars who, with their perfect coifs and institutions, “makes us cautiously optimistic that foreign
eyeliner, were not deemed manly enough role models for students are more hopeful about studying in the US”, says
their sons. In January, the ministry pledged to “pay more Sarah Spreitzer, director of government relations at the
attention to cultivating pupils’ masculinity” and endorsed a American Council on Education.
politician’s proposal to hire more male PE teachers to pre- US colleges got a big related boost in mid-January as
vent the “feminisation” of teen boys. Zhu Weiqiang of East Biden administration officials made clear that they are plan-
China Normal University, who advises the government on ning an immediate and comprehensive push on immigra-
k
PE reforms, says teaching a non-aggressive form of ung fu tion policy. “We are extremely heartened by the approach
was once commonly proposed. Now officials want children the new administration has been explaining,” says Miriam
to learn wrestling. Feldblum, executive director of the Presidents’ Alliance on
But parents do not want children to be distracted from Higher Education and Immigration, a grouping of US col-
their books. They are used to pupils getting full marks in lege leaders.
PE with next-to-no-effort, partly because examiners tended The Biden plan, while focused on needs far wider than of
to grade generously to avoid “unfairly” penalising hard- higher education, would be successful if Congress resolves
working students, says Zhu. Schools often cancel PE and the status of more than 450,000 college students in the
art classes in favour of extra revision-sessions for other country without legal status. It also would exempt doctoral
subjects. graduates in the sciences from visa limits.
This will change with the new reforms. But parents It’s pertinent to note that the growth in international ap-
are already griping that PE will be just one more source plicants as tallied by the Common App came despite a 13
of stress. They fret about how art will be appraised. Some percent drop from China, the single largest source of foreign
point out that schools in big cities will be able to fork out students at US universities. Countries producing major sin-
for boxing gear and trips to calligraphy museums, giving gle-year increases in foreign applications to US institutions
z
their pupils yet another edge in the hongk ao. Zhu laments for the coming autumn, in order of their existing shares,
the use of exam pressure to get people’s attention. Still, he include India (up 33 percent), Canada (20 percent), Brazil
hopes it is but a hop, skip and a jump to greater fitness. (53 percent), the UK (20 percent) and Pakistan (51 percent).
The size of such jumps, say experts, reflects factors such
UNITED STATES as progress against the Coronavirus and pent-up demand
International admissions uptick for US higher education that accumulated during the Trump
administration, when overseas enrolments sagged. “Despite
THE NUMBER OF INTERNATIONAL students the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, inter-
applying to US universities for the coming aca- national students understand the value of a US education,”
demic year has jumped by 11 percent, according says Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of immigration law
to initial estimates, raising hopes of a quick rebound under practice at Cornell University.
the Biden administration. However, actual gains in autumn enrolment might prove
The data from Common App, a non-profit provider of more modest than the initial Common App data suggest,
college admission services, bolster a growing sense in aca- says Gerardo Blanco, associate professor of higher educa-

MARCH 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 61