Education is not just about going to school. It's also about what you learn and experience outside of school. So family and community play a great role.
In January, 13 agencies(部门) — including the Ministry of Education — released a guideline to improve the school-family-community cooperative education mechanism(学校家庭社会协同育人机制). It clarifies the roles and responsibilities of school, family and community and how they work together to educate children.
"The goal of the guideline is to give full play to the advantages of each party and promote the all-round development of students.s Zhang Zhiyong, a professor at Beijing Normal University, told
China Education Daily.
According to the guideline, schools play a leading role in cooperative education. They should keep close contact with parents. Paying a home visit and offering family education guidance regularly are made a must. Parents should play a role in family education. Besides traditional education, they are encouraged to lead their kids to take part in activities like volunteering and doing sports. The community is expected to provide support and service to students. All kinds of education bases and museums, for example, should be free or preferential(优惠的) to students.
Gao Wei, 43, a mother of a 14-year-old from Beijing, is excited about the guideline. "Strengthening(加强) the connection between the school and parents is not a new thing. But the guideline tells us how to make it happen," she said. "Another good point is that it asks the community to open more social resources to students. Nowadays, many students only focus on studying. With such support, they can learn more from real life."
