Schools to incorporate resources of museums into studies

Ministry of Education and the National Cultural Heritage Administration co-released a document on Monday to guide better introduction of resources of museums into education at school.

As per the document, schools nationwide are urged to design new activities related to history, natural science, and technology, based on collections in local museums. Syllabuses of courses such as Chinese, history, geography, fine arts, physics, chemistry, biology, among others, will include contents on museums. And various educational goals will be set for students in different grades.

More extracurricular activities after 3:30 pm are encouraged to feature museums, according to the document. Not only guided tours to venues, but also creative formats like lectures, role-play games, and comic books on museums are needed to increase the students' interest.

Training programs for teachers will involve relevant contents, and better coordination concerning different departments of local governments will follow to ensure financial support and evaluation of the educational activities on museums.

"We've seen many good examples to make full use of museums as 'classes' in recent years," Luo Jing, director of museum and social relics department under the National Cultural Heritage Administration, said. "And it matches the needs of education to explore resources of museums in a deeper level."

Luo said the new document aims to develop new channels making use of museums in school education.

"The focus remains how to make students study better at school," Luo said. "But the museum-related activities can be more interactive, attractive, and immersive."

He also expected the upcoming activities can better nurture the students' "patriotism".