The Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau confirmed that it is now soliciting the public’s opinion on adding swimming as one of the optional exam subjects of the high school entrance exam in Shenzhen this year, the Shenzhen Evening News reported. The bureau also said that detailed plans and evaluation standards will hopefully be released soon. Like previous years, the PE exam for the high school entrance exam will take place in May this year. According to a draft released by the education bureau, Shenzhen is now in the stage of collecting district-level educational bureaus and schools’ opinions on the proposal of adding a 100-meter swim test as one of the exam subjects. Current PE exam options for graduates of junior high schools in Shenzhen include 200-meter running, 800-meter running for girls, 1,000-meter running for boys, standing long jump, sit-ups for girls, pull-ups for boys, ball pitching, rope skipping and basketball dribbling. Each student is required to select one of the running subjects and another sport. The addition of swimming will be a new option for students who are good at swimming. The proposal was heatedly discussed among parents and many of them were in favor of it. A parent surnamed Lin said that his son had been keen on swimming, so he was paying close attention to see if the authority would approve swimming as one of the exam subjects. “Shenzhen is a coastal city and many of the students know how to swim, so it would be a good thing for these children that are going to sit for the high school entrance exam,” said Lin. However, there are also some parents concerned with the fact that not many schools in Shenzhen have swimming pools and their kids would find swimming to be a burden, instead of enjoying the sport. An experienced PE teacher in Shenzhen gave his opinion on the issue. He said that swimming is not only a good sport, but also a survival skill that students should master. “If swimming can become one of the exam subjects, it would surely make more students learn how to swim, which is a lifelong skill,” said the teacher. The PE teacher also suggested that the authority should encourage schools to build swimming pools while enhancing teachers’ swimming skills and training in lifeguarding. He proposed that purchasing third-party services from other swimming pools might be a solution for those schools that don’t own swimming pools. In fact, the Guangdong Provincial Education Department released a notice in 2014, requiring all cities to include swimming as one of the compulsory PE subjects for the high school entrance exam. Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province, had set a 100-meter swim test as one of the elective subjects for the 2017 exam. The evaluation standards require male students to finish in 188 seconds and female students in 195 seconds to pass the exam. (Zhang Qian) |