BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Over the past few days, Fang Zhong, head of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has become something of an online celebrity.
"I hope you choose physics, and fall in love with it," Fang told the freshmen at a Beijing high school on Aug. 29.
Fang's remarks were in response to a worrying decline in "love" for physics among senior high school students. Among 290,000 students from east China's Zhejiang who took this year's "gaokao," the annual college entrance exam, only 80,000, or 27.5 percent, picked physics. In Shanghai, it was 30 percent.
For many, this seemed like a direct result of changes to the exam. Criticized for early division between science and liberal arts, with students obliged to choose one path or the other, Shanghai and Zhejiang have been running a revised system.X Students can pick any three from six subjects, along with compulsory Chinese, math and English. Students consider physics too difficult and do not want to take risk.
"Students who are good at science but weak in physics tended to replace it with a humanities subject," said a physics teacher surnamed Hou in Zhejiang. "Those subjects are 'safer' with smaller gaps in grades."
The situation has caused deep concern, especially among educators.
"Physics is the basis for many other natural sciences," said Li Yuwei, a physics teacher at the high school affiliated to Beijing Normal University.
"Those with a physics background who transfer to other majors are more likely to succeed than those without it," he added.
Xiong Bingqi, vice president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, echoed his worries.
"It's not good for producing talent with personality and creativity," he said. These qualities were usually neglected by students and their parents in blind pursuit of higher marks. "As long as that doesn't change, new gaokao will be no different from old gaokao"
Li Yuqing, a teacher from northwest China's Gansu Province, pointed out some problems teaching physics in high school.
"The teaching is limited to plans, outlines and homework, making it harder for students to do their own thing," he said.
Physics teachers need to modify their teaching methods to help students study independently, think for themselves and solve problems. Li Yuwei has come up with a method of teaching four levels of content and complexity, which allows students to find their feet before they pick their exam subjects.
"We're trying to make sure that no one who is interested, and good at physics, falls by the wayside, while those who are not so good can retain an interest," he explained.
The Ministry of Education has set new standards on science in primary schools, which went into effect this semester.
The standards stress inspiring children's curiosity and desire for knowledge, while regulating teaching methods, much to the delight of the teachers.
"Younger kids are very curious about a lot of things, making it easier to get them interested," said Liu Ying, doctoral supervisor at Peking University.
Still, Xiong Bingqi wants more to be done in terms of the college enrollment system, asking for more rights for colleges to separate exam results and enrollment.
"Only by that can we make science education an inspiration," he said.
