Teachers required to take 20 hours of political education courses per year
China has called for further spreading and promoting of Party ideology at college via the Internet, and will require college teachers to undergo at least 20 hours of ideology education every year, a move that will maintain the nation's core values, analysts said.
Jointly issued on Tuesday by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Ministry of Education, the guideline is geared toward all faculty involved in ideology education, including school instructors, Party branch secretaries and heads of branches of the China Communist Youth League.
It is a landmark project to establish a publicity team on ideology that focuses on the Internet, the guideline said, adding that a training system should be improved to provide constant instruction on political theories, which should be no fewer than 20 hours yearly.
China began to emphasize ideology education at universities at the start of 2015, when central authorities issued a guideline in January highlighting the importance of universities in championing Marxism, the Chinese Dream, socialist core values and traditional culture.
"It is rare for the education ministry to highlight the role of new media, which should become a centerpiece, as the Internet has become the younger generation's main source of knowledge and discourse," Zhu Jidong, a scholar on socialism research at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
The guideline stressed that it is necessary for university faculty to use Internet jargon on WeChat and Weibo for publicity work. They should also improve their ability to identify and respond to "negative information" online.
"Compared with theories, people can empathize with real-life examples and Internet jargon more. Young teachers should not give up on new media, which can attract wide attention," Tang Zhongbao, an associate professor at the School of Marxism of Jiangnan University, told the Global Times.
The regulation also encourages teachers to participate in online discussions through comments and blogs, which may become part of the criteria for future title assessment.
However, many teachers are reluctant to participate in online discussions as it is easy to be criticized by netizens, according to Tang.
Wu Wenjun, a vice Party chief at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said that the official WeChat account of her university has become the most frequently used online platform to spread news and quell rumors, and the university also offers over 100 hours of training to school deans and Party heads.
Echoing Wu, Tang said that the university holds seminars several times a year to study Chinese President Xi Jinping's speeches and statements he made at key meetings.
"Unfortunately, some teachers still scorn those seminars. Therefore, it is important to set a minimum course length to guarantee their participation. But to keep them interested requires more down-to-earth lectures or in-depth discussions at future training courses," Tang said.
