BEIJING. – Education authorities have banned the use of foreign textbooks in elementary and secondary schools in the Chinese capital, which experts say is the latest development in Chinese regulations on the use of teaching materials by schools.
The ban was announced in a textbook regulation document released Monday by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission.
According to the document, textbooks used by schools in the city are written based on the national curriculum and checked by the authorities. Educational organizations in each district of Beijing will announce the list of selected textbooks for students.
Educational materials for elementary and secondary schools in the city must follow state educational guidelines, he said.
Foreign textbooks are not allowed in elementary and middle school students’ classrooms, while foreign textbooks used in Beijing high schools must comply with relevant national and local guidelines.
Such a ban had already been mentioned in a national regulation on the management of teaching materials issued by the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) in January 2020. It was believed that this regulation would help improve the quality of teaching, establish academic autonomy and to protect the copyright of foreign books.
However, enforcement of the ban varied from city to city at the time, said an industry insider in the elementary and middle school textbook publishing industry named Liu.
