China to strengthen calligraphy education

Chinese education authorities on Sunday called for providing better calligraphy education for the country's primary and middle school students, according to the Ministry of Education. Calligraphy, which was a sort of time-honored handwriting art in China, was suspended for a period of time in school classes, an official with the ministry said at a prize-awarding ceremony of a national calligraphy competition. A total of 100 works created by students from the country's 1,379 schools were awarded in the contest, according to the official. Earlier in 2011, the ministry rolled out a guideline requiring primary school students to practise writing-brush skills starting from the third grade. However, the guideline was not well implemented as a lack of specialized teachers and unified teaching materials, as well as students' preference to other courses that were evaluated by academic scores, the official added. The ministry said it will also work together with relevant mass organizations to promote and standardize calligraphy education.