YINCHUAN, April 26 (Xinhua) -- In the local school education base, 12-year-old Duan Jiayang learned how to properly place mulch film over vegetable fields.
"I learned how to place the mulch film independently," said Duan, a student of Tanglai Hui Primary School in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. "It's not easy."
In China, many parents place a heavy focus on their children's academic grades, while vocational skills have largely been ignored.
"Some parents do everything for their children," said Yan Mei, an official with the primary school. "For instance, during the school's general cleaning, some parents could be seen doing all the chores, and their children were just sitting around."
With fewer and fewer chances to develop practical skills, many students lack basic skills needed in their daily lives, Yan added.
Since March last year, Chinese authorities have issued a variety of guidelines, requiring that colleges, middle schools and primary schools pay more attention to teaching students practical skills.
Following the rollout of these guidelines, Tanglai Hui Primary School launched an "agricultural class base" on one of its campuses. Students plant fruits and vegetables in the base that spans about 0.4 hectares.
In the days leading up to the May Day holiday, students of various grades in the school worked together to sow seeds, till the soil and place mulch film over the fields in the base, said school principal Yang Bo. They planted watermelon, spinach and corn, among other crops. May Day, also known as Labor Day, is observed on May 1 in China.
"We will ask students to be involved in the entire process of the plants' growth," Yang said. "Life skills education is not simply about working in the fields but also experiencing and observing life."
The school hopes that students will develop an understanding of just how precious food is so that they will better appreciate the hardship their parents went through, Yang added.
On a campus of the No. 21 Primary School in Yinchuan, students were attending a special life skills class: making steamed buns in various shapes.
With fermented dough and equipment prepared, students began to make buns in the shape of swans, hedgehogs and rabbits.
One of the students Lian Yan quickly grasped the technique and made a dough swan, put it in the classroom steamer and watched it become a steamed bun.
"I really love my life skills course. It's my favorite class," Lian said. "We can learn to make steamed buns and grow succulent plants here."
Children usually just study at home and doing chores is an unpleasant task they want to avoid, said the mother of Fan Wendi, one of the students in the school.
"Vocational courses turn such 'tasks' into an interest, and then a hobby, and eventually a life skill," she said. "It will be a good thing for their future." Enditem
