The State Council released a circular with guidelines on how to reform education methods in senior high schools.

Senior high schools play an important role in consolidating achievements made during compulsory education, providing momentum for future development of higher education, and improving overall quality of the public. The government must promote curriculum reform within China’s senior high schools and the comprehensive reform of Gaokao (national college entrance examination) to improve education quality, the circular said.

It set the goal of an education system that works on developing all-around moral, intellectual, physical, and aesthetics capabilities with a hardworking spirit that must be further improved by 2022.

It also urged government at all levels to formulate plans to introduce new curriculums and new textbooks in all senior high schools by 2022.

“Schools should arrange courses in various subjects in a reasonable way, ” it said, adding that courses in sports, health, art, comprehensive practical activities, physics, chemistry, and biology should all be included in the three-year high school education.

Curriculums should follow the principle of talent training and take into consideration the enrollment subjects of national college entrance examinations, as well as students’ interests and specialties, the circular said.

A system to guide students’ development and teachers’ training should also be established in every school, the circular said.

College enrollment mechanism should be gradually transformed from being score-oriented to a system with diversified evaluation and enrollment criteria, the circular added.

The circular also emphasized the supervision on campus construction and use of education funds.