The Sichuan Provincial Department of Education recently released the Sichuan Provincial Work Plan for the Comprehensive Implementation of Aesthetic Education in Schools (hereinafter referred to as the Plan), which details the strategy for province-wide initiatives to promote and integrate aesthetic education in schools.
The Plan articulates the province's aspirations for 2027, aiming to accomplish: "three fusion" in school aesthetic education, seamlessly blending aesthetic education into the fabric of all students, all teachers, and all schools province-wide; "four full coverages", ensuring complete coverage in the provision of art curricula, the establishment of aesthetic education clubs, the training for aesthetic education instructors, and the cultivation of relevant campus culture; and "five comprehensive enhancements", comprehensively elevating the instructional quality of aesthetic education courses, bolstering teaching and research proficiency in aesthetic education, raising the standard of resource integration for aesthetic education, amplifying the effectiveness of digital empowerment in aesthetic education, and upgrading the caliber of rural aesthetic education development.
The Plan lays out actions for progressing the reform of aesthetic education instruction, elevating teachers' aesthetic literacy, promoting artistic hands-on endeavors, cultivating a campus aesthetic culture, optimizing the aesthetic education assessment framework, enhancing the caliber of rural aesthetic instruction, harnessing the power of smart education to bolster aesthetic teaching, and integrating society's aesthetic education resources. It presents 18 specific measures to execute these actions.
The Plan mandates the full implementation, adequate provision, and excellent instruction of art courses in strict accordance with the curriculum standards for each grade level. During the compulsory education phase, primary schools are required to offer a minimum of four credit hours of art courses per week, whereas junior high schools must provide at least two credit hours. Moving into the senior high school phase, regular high schools must deliver a total of at least 108 credit hours of art courses, and non-art secondary vocational schools must offer a minimum of 72 credit hours in total. Colleges and universities are obliged to guarantee that undergraduate students complete at least two credits in common education art courses, and they are encouraged to integrate art courses into the common course system for graduate education.
Efforts should be made to strengthen the primary function of art classes, aiming to establish a "core classroom for aesthetic education" that seamlessly integrates learning, practice, and exhibition (performance), effectively utilize diverse platforms, including urban cultural museums and scenic rural landscapes, to carry out aesthetic education field studies, thereby creating an "expanded classroom for aesthetic education", and encourage cities (prefectures) that meet specific criteria to initiate pilot programs for the comprehensive selection and training of art students in both primary and secondary schools. Each county (county-level city, district) shall be equipped with at least one full-time aesthetic education specialist. Measures need to be taken to enhance the development of the provincial-level aesthetic education expert advisory committee and the steering committee for aesthetic teaching. Additionally, it is essential to leverage universities and research institutions to establish high-end think tanks and high-level research platforms on aesthetic education.
Schools of all levels and types ought to establish school-branded student art clubs tailored to their specific traits, guaranteeing engaging, diverse and distinctive offerings, and regularly organize practical aesthetic education activities, such as choir and group dance performances. Provincial, municipal and county-level authorities are encouraged to organize various student art performances annually, actively cultivating regional aesthetic education activity brands. Schools are encouraged to organize at least one fully participatory student art festival per semester and follow a "one school, one brand" and "one school, multiple brands" approach to create their respective classic brands in arts.
