BEIJING — Sports schools in China should boast better cultural education for the athletes, and further integrate education into sports, a report released by the Ministry of Education (MOE) said on March 14.

The quality of cultural education at sports schools is crucial to the quality of athletes, as well as whether the schools can maintain sustainable development, the MOE added in the report.

The report was based on a series of inspections into sports schools in nine cities and provinces of China, which was carried out by the MOE in late 2015.

The MOE found out that a number of the schools inspected did not spend enough money in cultural education, while the conditions of the hardware and equipment for education at others were outdated.

Meanwhile, some local education departments paid little attention to the cultural education of sports schools, some of which were not even qualified for the nine-year compulsory education, resulting in a lack of interests and proactivity in study from the athletes, the report said.

Sports schools play a major role in the development of China’s sports industry, nurturing 95 percent of the Chinese athletes who have won medals in international tournaments, according to the MOE.

As of now, there are a total of 2,183 sports schools on all levels in China, 1,717 of which are for children.