School life should not revolve solely around academic studies, principal says

Rather than spending all their time on academic studies, students at a high school in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, have to do more than one hour of physical exercise every day and obtain six credits in aesthetic courses before they graduate, according to the school's principal.

Physical and aesthetic education should not make way for academic study, and increased time spent on academic learning can only improve students' grades to a certain extent, said Tang Jiangpeng, principal of Xishan High School.

The boarding school also ensures that students get at least eight hours' sleep every night, with the lights turned off before 10 pm, he said.

If students do not take their test grades seriously, they won't achieve high scores in the gaokao, the national college entrance exam, Tang said. But if they spend all their energy on tests and neglect other aspects of their development, it will be difficult for them to succeed in life later on, he added.

Tang said students with good grades are usually those who are highly efficient at learning and who know how to balance their study and leisure time.

Most adults do not enjoy working for a long time, and the same applies to teenage students, who need more time to relax and develop, he said.

"A good education helps nurture students into lifelong sports lovers and to accept responsibility, solve problems, and live fruitful lives," Tang said.

While scores in the gaokao determine which university a student can be enrolled at, those for general tests and mock exams only reflect whether a student has mastered a certain amount of knowledge, Tang said, adding that parents and students should not be obsessed with getting extra points in exams or moving up in the rankings.

Moreover, tests on sports, arts and music should have a low pass threshold, so most students can pass them by making an effort, rather than the tests focusing on differentiating between students, Tang said.

As a teacher for more than 40 years, he said competition to gain admission to leading universities through the gaokao has increased steadily, placing higher requirements on students' academic abilities.

However, the student enrollment rate for higher education has risen significantly over the years, and Tang said nearly all the students at his school have a good chance of being admitted to universities or colleges.

He added that the stigma attached to vocational education means that parents and students have a negative view of such schools, which heightens their anxiety and pressure.

More efforts are needed to end such prejudice and to improve the salaries of vocational school graduates, Tang added.