Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
You're listening to Roundtable with myself, He Young.
I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Yu Xun.
Coming up, as myopia, obesity and a general lack of physical exercise become growing concerns among Chinese students, The country's new policies are aimed at improving the number of qualified P .E.
teachers. Could this be the key to a healthy or healthier future?
And life's best moments from the soundtrack of your heart to little things that make you smile.
Join us at Roundtable's happy place.
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Now on Roundtable, let's switch gears.
Physical education, or PE, is a school subject that teaches students how to be physically active and healthy.
Yet in China, it's often taken a backseat to core subjects such as Chinese language and math, which tend to dominate school curriculums.
In its most recent response, China's Ministry of Education has rolled out new policies aimed at boosting both the quantity and quality of PE teachers in primary and secondary schools.
This move comes in an effort to address the chronic shortage of teachers in this vital but underappreciated field.
Let's take a look at what do these new policies entail.
So first of all, this is a kind of a level up for China's PE teacher.
And as primary and secondary schools must ensure physical education teachers are treated the same as their colleagues in subjects such as Chinese, math and English and intensify efforts to develop key sports such as soccer, basketball and volleyball.
According to MOE or the Ministry of Education, this is prioritizing PE classes among Chinese educational system and the measures come after China issued its first national plan in January to build a strong education nation by 2035 and the policies included making sure that primary and secondary school
students to have at least two hours of physical activity daily, which aims to promote healthy growth and all -round development of students.
This is a big deal because this is the first governmental notice of its kind, giving really specific requirements for physical education among youth.
And what they're hoping for is the development of physical education teachers in primary and secondary schools.
And one of the big aims is to advance the teaching profession of physical education teachers and create a pipeline, a healthy pipeline.
for physical education teachers in compulsory education.
Well, if you went to school here in China, and if you were a millennial, I bet you've heard of su zhi jiao yu, or quality education or holistic education.
It refers to an educational system that focuses on the overall development of a student, including their intellectual, moral, physical, and creative abilities, rather than just academic or exam performances.
I remember sitting through many classes talking about that in elementary school in Beijing.
And fast forward to 20 years later, it feels like we haven't buzzed much.
We've made small improvements, but still we're talking about, you know, one crucial part of quality education.
And that's, it's just, why is it so hard to get the playtime in, to get the physical activity in?
And it seems like we need to talk about this.
I think the point is that the system or these things are changing like step by step or little by little.
I don't know if you ever like experienced this.
But when I was in elementary school, it seems like there were times when, for example, the Chinese or English teachers would show up during PE class and saying that the PE teacher was absent.
So today, this class is the class for dictation.
And that is the, you know, some examples or cases that would happen during my primary school or elementary or secondary school.
But I think now for these new policies coming up, first of all, the time for physical activity will be guaranteed.
And also, I think the classes for PE teachers, the times of the PE classes will be also guaranteed.
Well, the reasons for this change might be some of the things that you mentioned when you were introducing this topic, Hoeyoung.
It's gotten a lot of attention, physical education, in recent years due to those concerns over childhood obesity or myopia, which is nearsightedness, I believe.
And also, there's a lack of teachers in the country as well for physical education.
In mid -2022, there was data, official data, that indicated the shortage nationwide was significant.
120 ,000 physical education teachers, and you're going to have rural areas affected the most.
Now, when you don't have enough teachers to teach the students, well, then that responsibility falls on the teachers who are there.
And then you have overburdened staff.
And when the staff is overburdened, then you have a diminished instruction quality.
And when you have a diminished instruction quality, you have a diminished experience for the students.
In Dalian, for example, which is in northeast China, there's a school that serves about 1500 students, but they only have 10 PE teachers.
Each of those teachers is responsible for up to 200 students and they oversee the extracurricular activities.
One teacher who chose to be anonymous said the workload is overwhelming.
I have 14 classes a week.
Plus, I oversee physical activities during breaks and coach the school's football team as well.
When you don't have enough teachers to do the jobs, the responsibilities lie somewhere else, and that is exhausting for those teachers, too.
Yeah, it sounds like the classic example of a vicious cycle, because you've got maybe not so straightforward, strong conviction in wanting to execute all these very nice plans, like what you should have mentioned earlier.
If you had to pick and choose Chinese language class versus PE class, then teachers, students, as well as sometimes even parents would pick the other one.
But it's and it's increasingly, though, maybe we're seeing also parents worrying about the health of their children and wanting to see more of more robust execution of proper physical education in this country.
So what are some of the main points, I guess, that this new policy is trying to aim at?
First of all, the principle is about health comes first.
Based on this principle, the new document identified key tasks for primary and secondary schools across the country in building a strong PE teacher workforce, of course, and guaranteeing the mental and physical health of students And also to address some existing challenges like uneven distribution of PE
teachers and skill gaps and insufficient welfare support.
Also, the circular proposed several policy measures, including strengthening teacher ethics, enhancing training programs, optimizing resource distribution, upgrading teaching skills and improving evaluation and incentive systems.
I think enhanced, you know, staff training and recruitment is quite important in this way, because when we're seeing, you know, the shortage of talent in PE teacher, you know, this is the way that, you know, can we can actually focus on.
This new policies focus on diversifying PE teacher recruitment channels and also aims to train more PE teachers and hire those with strong sports background.
One example is that, you know, Olympic silver medalist, wing surfer Chen Pei Na is now coaching at a school in Shenzhen.
She said, you know, passing on her athletic experience to students is another way to continue her career in sports.
That must be a treat for the students there to have a class with an Olympic silver medalist.
How amazing would that be?
They're also encouraging the recruitment of retired athletes, other retired athletes, and military veterans to help close the gap, too.
Another one of the highlights, or the measures, is they are going to have different ratios for class to teacher.
The ratios for class to teacher will now be capped at a maximum of five classes per teacher in primary schools, six classes per teacher in middle schools and then eight classes per teacher in high schools so capping the numbers will take some of the burden off of off of teachers too I think it's by the sound of it a lot
needs to be done to make this whole policy land nicely for example when we say recruiting all kinds of personnel talents into the PE teacher pipeline, then is pay going to be sufficient?
Will that retired Olympic athlete be earning enough to feel like, okay, being a PE teacher is actually a good career choice?
One question. Another could be, well, are these teachers qualified enough?
Are these teachers, are they, what they do, truly irreplaceable as having another teacher just asking kids to run a few laps and, you know, something simple like that?
So there are a lot of things that need to change.
Yeah. And on the topic of compensation, they are looking to ensure equal treatment.
And this is one of the moves.
The government has ensured that P .E.
teachers will receive equal compensation to their peers who teach other subjects with performance -based salary adjustments for after -school programs, after -school sports duties, and also team coaching too.
So that could tackle the problem of the attractiveness of the job, if you will.
Also, they're looking on the topic of money, they're looking at financial planning for schools.
Schools were instructed to refine their budget planning to encourage social funding for PE programs in primary and secondary schools, and also increase investment in PE development through diverse funding channels.
So on the topic of money, that's the way they're going about handling that.
And also in terms of quality, and as I said, training of these PE staffs or PE teachers, detailed requirements include all PE teachers are to hold a degree in sport related fields or an advanced certification, such as a Level 2 athlete qualification.
So this is the way that these policies are trying to ensure the quality of PE teachers.
And, you know, some experts say overall, it's also indicating that, you know, China's education system is slowly changing.
You know, there's more focus on students' physical and mental health with more sports, classes and resources available.
And this not only benefits students' physical well -being, but also provides support for their mental health.
That's all very well said.
But I can't help and recall one of the news reports we discussed on the show last year or the year before.
It was about, I believe it was elementary schools or in secondary schools.
The in -between class recession, remission?
Recess. Yeah, nothing to do with economics.
Recess was basically the teachers told during that recess, the kids should be staying indoors just to avoid any accidents, any scraping of the knee or potential problems.
And then, I mean, yeah, a lot of these policies look great on paper.
And do you think they can be implemented well?
Because just if I may go back to that example one more second, let's say if the teachers are worried that there's going to be screaming parents coming to yell at you because their kid just broke a bone, God forbid.
And also parents might be worried about it as well.
And sometimes it gets complicated when implementation is actually the key here.
Well, when you talk about policies and you talk about implementation of policies, you're talking about two different things, right?
So the pressure will be on the schools, won't it?
Tracking the impact of these policies and even adjustments that need to be made, that's going to be a challenge here for the schools.
Also, we talked about the money side of things, then ensuring that that money and that financial support gets carried out and that schools have enough money to support these policies, these newly implemented policies.
Because if they don't have the money to implement the policies, then the policies aren't going to be implemented.
That's just how that goes.
So mechanisms should be put in place to monitor how things are going.
Accountability for the schools, right?
If they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, then those in charge need to be held accountable.
Things like that would help to keep these programs in place and working well.
And from my perspective, I'm quite positive on this one.
And as I said, in the past maybe five years or even 10 years, the situation of PE classes has been changing like little by little, at least.
I remember when I was in elementary school, we probably had three to four PE classes a week.
But almost every day there was a set time for a group exercise or collective sports activities like morning runs arranged by the school.
So with the policy is so widespread, I think there will be changes.
And now everybody has heard about it.
And if you haven't had your one PE class every day, then students can raise their hand and ask, where's my PE class?
Yeah. And I want to make this point, too.
Not only having these policies put in place and implemented properly, but when we talk about bringing in teachers, I think it's important that the teachers receive the proper training as well.
And here's what I mean.
This is a quote from Erica Munch.
She's a physical education teacher at Iowa West City High School in Iowa.
I found what she said, and I thought it to be quite important.
She said, a successful PE program can literally change the way a school functions as a whole.
Physical education involves cooperative learning, acceptance of yourself and others, learning to try new things, no matter how good you are, communication, team building, and problem solving.
And this is the point that I want to make.
Not everyone loves gym class.
Some people actually dread it.
This is a sensitive time for young students when they're questioning their physical ability to do things.
They're also questioning their body, right?
Their hormones are developing.
They might think, oh, I'm not pretty.
I'm not good looking or handsome.
And now I have to wear shorts and a t -shirt in front of my classmates.
Also, if you're not good at math, your lack of math ability is not put on full display in the math class.
If you don't have athletic ability, that can be put on display in front of 30 other people who are probably going to tease you for your lack of physical ability.
so this is my point when they bring these teachers in to do these programs i hope that these teachers acknowledge that and they try to make these programs as inclusive as they can for all the students in the class not just the ones who happen to be athletically inclined or or physically gifted make
it for everyone that's such a great point because you are bound not to have that many athletes in a class anyway, just for the fact of numbers and proportions, odds.
Yes, exactly. And one thing kind of stood out to me, kind of is an interesting sort of detail there, is that apparently in this new basket of policies, one thing's highlighted to stress the importance of adequately staffing key sports, such as soccer, basketball, and volleyball, which are deemed as
the three top big ball sports in this country.
And I'm just curious what might come out of this because every year during, not every year, every maybe four years during major sporting events, and then we're questioning, why is the national team doing this well?
And, well, if you don't have enough kids playing these sports, then where do you get the, well, the talents to that pipeline?
And no wonder. You can't just rely on the tixiao or the sports special schools, a Chinese system, which we don't have time to go into great detail here.
So really interested to hear and see what happens next.
Well, coming up next on today's show, welcome to the happiest corner on the airwaves, a roundtable's happy place.
Delivery. Delivery.
Delivery. What is it?
Happiness from Round Table.
Yushun, what is your happy place?
So, recently, the Chinese government has introduced a variety of shopping subsidies, you know.
These subsidies cover many, like, home appliances, kitchenware, electronic products, And, of course, the one that I'm most interested in, of course, the subsidies for mobile phones, tablets and smart wearables.
And then I took advantage of this subsidy.
I bought a tablet and smart wearable for my parents.
And I got a discount for about 400 yuan.
That's, I think, about 55 US dollars.
So it's not a huge discount, but it's better than nothing.
And, you know, when you are having these kind of discounts, you're always like more willing to buy, you know, an electronic product when you're seeing these kinds of things.
55 American dollars in your pocket or how many yuan did you say that was?
400 yuan. 400 yuan in your pocket is better than 400 yuan in somebody else's pocket.
Oh, yes. And it has been a month since this subsidy policy started.
And according to the Ministry of Commerce, as of February 19th, over 26 .7 million consumers have applied for this subsidy for mobile phones, tablets, and smart wearables.
And I am luckily as one of the 26 million.
So this could be my happy place of saving 400 grand or 55.
And you did that for your parents too, which was very selfless.
Were they excited to receive their new toys?
My dad loves that tablet because he wanted to have a tablet so much because still the smartphone is big enough, but not that big.
So a tablet is better for his eyesight, I think.
Yeah. Well, I can hear the happy vibes from your voice and see it from your face.
That is a wonderful, happy place to share with everyone.
Steve, what about you?
I think I mentioned it on the show, didn't I, maybe a couple of months ago, about how my friend out of the blue was diagnosed with a very serious form of cancer.
And I'm happy to report, and this is my happy place today, two things.
Number one, he finished his treatment.
It was really, really hard on him.
It was a real challenge physically and emotionally.
But he's finished with it now.
he's got his appetite back he's he's gained two kilograms back he lost a lot of weight during that process that's one of the happy place aspects the other one we did a fundraising pro of campaign for him because cancer treatments I'm sure you know are insanely expensive and we set a goal of sixty thousand American dollars
and we passed that goal now and people are still donating even though So we've passed that goal, and that was so important because when you're going through cancer treatments like chemo and radiation, the last thing you need to be worried about is how you're going to pay for that, and that took away all
of those concerns for him.
So he's on the road to recovery, and the bills are going to be paid for, and it's just a wonderful thing.
Wow. And thank you for sharing with everyone.
Yes, that's really heartwarming to know.
Yes, and all the best of luck to your good friend.
I will pass that on.
Thank you. And what I have for you is a cinematic share of A Happy Place.
I would encourage you to go see the 25th anniversary re -release of Wang Jiawei or Wang Kawei is In the Mood for Love or Huayang Nianhua.
And this is considered one, if not top 100 or top 10 best movies of all time in movie history.
Set in 19, well, set in the 1960s Hong Kong, the movie is a quiet yet passionate exploration of two neighbors who discover that their spouses are having an affair.
And both Maggie Cheng, Zhang Manyu, and Tony Leung, Liang Chao Wei, both at their prime, give best performances ever.
And this film captures the essence of love, loss, and unspoken emotions like no other.
And to go see the re -release offers a great chance to see the longest version of the film ever shown.
And Wong Kar -wui calls this the closest to my original idea.
And not only is the image painstakingly restored, but there are also five, some say nine extra minutes, including Easter eggs.
They didn't release the original film.
They remastered it and then added more to it?
Yes. Oh, cool. And that's the ending that Wong Kar -wai didn't want us to know.
And, well, it has to be the fans, you, to decide which one's better.
But I think the original one left more of a wandering state of mind, which I think could be really good for these kind of movies.
Anyway, Wong Kar -wai didn't just direct a film.
he's writing poetry with light and shadow.
In the 4K restored version, every frame feels like a velvet touch, raindrops turning into gold under streetlights, and cigarette smoke slowly blooming across the burgundy curtains.
The subtle glances between Maggie and Tony can really feel sensual, a kind of encounter rich with a sense of fate's eternal pull and this is one of the movies that now 25 years later when you see it again every frame is so beautiful like it can be made into a movie's poster and not a rarely do movies
qualify in doing that do you think it looked better remastered or do you think it looked better it's like the argument you know does music sound better on a record scratchy on a record or through an mp3 what do you think which one looked better well when i was when i watched it 20 years ago i watched
it in a pirated vcd or dvd i can't remember and now i'm going to the cinema to see it paying my ticket and it's like yes i'm happy to pay that ticket because I think I owe it to One Car Away, Maggie and Tony and everybody else.
But I think movie is an interesting medium that forever captures the prime of those beloved actors.
And it's just a chance to go see them.
And that's it for today's roundtable.
We will see you next time.
