Many a high school in Nanjing is today trying to break the stereotype held by many that Chinese students are just good at studying, too nerdy to have any experience of real life, by implementing more programs that develop students’ wholesomeness rather than only focusing on the dreaded University Entrance Examination.
Extracurricular activities, also known as After School Activties (ASAs) almost invariably comprise clubs for students to join at their own discretion, with robotic clubs and sports clubs being among the most popular at this time..
Part of the inspiration for the new move might well come from Nanjing No.1 High School and Nanjing No.29 High School that today both have a male and a female volleyball team. Recently, the male volleyball of the former won an international volleyball competition held in Croatia, while one of the most famous female Chinese volleyball players, Hui Ruoqi, used to be a member of the latter’s female volleyball team, where her sporting dream was ignited.
Elsewhere, Jinling High School’s female basketball team has won many awards. With the program now up and running for 5 years, many of the participating students have gone on to university and try to continue their career of sports.
Over in the robotic clubs, students learn to innovate and create robots, which not only assesses their programming skills, but also measures their creative and practical intelligence. In most high schools, students can choose the VEX or WER robotics, two famous robotic contests, giving experience in competitions that can not only help them learn basic scientific knowledge to get into a better university, but also improve their abilities in different aspects, such as creativity, problem solving and independent working ability.
With Nanjing now focusing more on internationalisation, so many high schools provide students many opportunities for language learning. Pupils in Nanjing No.1 High School can now choose Spanish or Japanese, while the school will help them to do further research or study on subjects of their preference outside the world of text books. Until now, it was the mainstream thought that such studies seem not directly related to exams in the short term, but there is the growing realisation today that such can help students release their stress from tiring study in a flexible way and even boost their efficiency.
In addition, more international activities are being held, catering to different cultural tastes, such as the American debate club, moot court, and the most popular, MUN (Model United Nations). Thereby, Chinese students, known to be shy and with little chance to speak out their opinions, now are encouraged to practice their communication skills in groups.
Above all, although they still suffer from piles of homework everyday, today’s Nanjing’s high schoolers are beginning to have more chances to think about what they can do and what they like before entering university.
