Quality control prioritized after flaws exposed in schools program

China is ramping up its soccer promotion in schools by emphasizing quality over quantity.

So far the country's soccer reform plan has yielded impressive figures but, as China's failure to qualify for this summer's World Cup finals illustrated, results on the pitch still leave a lot to be desired.

By the end of last year, the plan, instigated by President Xi Jinping in 2015, had helped 20,218 schools offer a soccer-specialized education - up from about 5,000 in 2014. Another 30,000 such schools will be built by 2025 while 10,000 new pitches will be constructed in the next three years, according to the Ministry of Education.

A four-tier league system involving over 10 million student players from primary school to college level has also been established.

"We have achieved solid progress as we can proudly say that soccer is now a truly popularized and widely participated sport in China," said Wang Dengfeng, director of PE, Health and Arts Education at the ministry.

Addressing the lack of youth coaches, the ministry has provided preferential policies and extra funding to encourage schools to hire almost 16,000 soccer-focused PE teachers over the past three years.

Central and regional sports and education authorities have trained over 230,000 PE teachers and youth soccer coaches with technical support from the Chinese Football Association, with 1,100 of those graduates benefiting from three-month training programs in European soccer strongholds such as France and Britain.

Wang is confident all this progress will eventually translate into a bigger pool of elite talent.

"It's not a quick fix but the growing participation levels will definitely produce more talent for international competitions in the long run," he said.

The ministry acknowledges, however, that there are problems to iron out.

A picture taken at a primary school in Henan province showing students doing drills with the ball in their hands instead of at their feet prompted heated debate online and highlighted the shortcomings of coaching on certain campuses.

And now the ministry is set to wield the axe, with 30 schools to be excluded from the program after failing to meet standards in training hours, quality and organization.

"Starting from this year, we have to strictly run reviews and examination of the work conducted by all the specialized soccer schools to stress quality over quantity as far as training is concerned," said Wang.

The key to improving training is to combine Western expertise with the traditional Chinese PE curriculum, reckons Deng Shijun, a teacher with Wansongyuan Road Primary School in Wuhan, Hubei province.

"Given the huge difference in culture, infrastructure and lifestyle, authentic European youth training based on the club system won't work out here in schools," said Deng, who observed European training methods first-hand during a three-month Football Association-approved course in England last year.

"We should develop in our own way by taking technical cues from overseas."

To appease Chinese parents who value academic study over athletic pursuits, the ministry plans to give 75 more colleges the power to enroll exceptional soccer players with lower requirements in entrance examinations later this year. Currently, 77 colleges are matriculating such students.

"We will ensure that talented players can gain admission to elite universities," said Wang.

"The goal of our school soccer promotion is not to cultivate talent directly for professional clubs or national teams but rather to make it an integral part of an all-around education and to involve as many youngsters as possible in a healthier life."