Compulsory State News In China School Timetable Raises Questions Over Political Indoctrination

(MENAFN- IANS) Colombo, Oct 24 (IANS) China has increasingly integrated ideological and patriotic education into its school system, with official policies treating it as an essential part of students' overall development rather than limiting it to conventional classroom instruction, a report has stated.

It noted that China's Education Law mandates adherence to the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and identifies 'Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era' as one of the guiding principles of socialist education.

Against this backdrop, a reported timetable at a high school in China's Hainan Province has drawn attention for incorporating a compulsory half-hour of state television into students' already demanding daily routines, according to a report in Sri Lankan newspaper 'Daily Mirror'.

“For a teenager preparing for China's intensely competitive university entrance examinations, the school day is already measured in classes, study sessions, tests and tightly controlled routines. But a reported timetable from a high school in Hainan has drawn attention for adding another element to that routine: a fixed half-hour devoted every evening to watching the Chinese state broadcaster's flagship news programme,” the report detailed.

Screenshots circulating online reportedly indicate that senior students at Haikou No. 4 Secondary School in Haikou, Hainan Province, are required to watch Xinwen Lianbo from 7 pm to 7.30 pm before starting two lengthy evening study sessions. The schedule reportedly begins at 6.20 am and continues until lights-out at 11 pm, it highlighted.

The report noted that controversy surrounding the timetable has triggered a wider debate over the role of political messaging in Chinese education.

“A timetable becomes a political debate. The reported Haikou schedule has attracted attention because of what students are allegedly required to watch and when they are required to watch it,” it added.

According to the report, critics of China's education system have questioned whether the reported timetable is intended to keep students informed or influence the information they are regularly exposed to.

Citing Chinese commentators quoted by the US-based news website The Epoch Times, the report said some likened the arrangement to highly regimented institutional routines. It highlighted that some characterised the compulsory viewing of state news as political indoctrination.

“China's education system formally incorporates ideological and patriotic education from the early years through higher education, and the state has repeatedly called for those themes to be integrated into students' broader educational experience. The controversy over a half-hour of evening television consequently points to a much larger issue: in China's schools, the question is not simply what students study in the classroom, but also what information forms part of the daily environment in which they grow up,” Daily Mirror mentioned.

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