The current rigid study pattern being employed in China's primary and secondary schools is training students to be unimaginative, and this will affect the country's long-term cultural development.

Zhang Xiaoming, vice director of the Cultural Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told reporters at the release party for the 2007 Blue Book of China's Culture on Tuesday.

Primary and secondary schools should pay more attention to cultivating creative students rather than paying too much attention on academic scores, Zhang Xiaoming said.

Education is the foundation of a country's long-term cultural development. And, without a creative and artistic generation for the future, the country's dream of cultural rejuvenation can hardly be realized, Zhang Xiaoming noted.

(CRIENGLISH.com February 28, 2007)