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New rule bans earings, necklaces, goatee beards
CHENGDU: Shi Xiangting, a student in Chengdu Medical School, regrets that she will have to tie up her long hair and take off her shiny earrings when the new semester starts in spring.
Shi, 19, a fashion follower, is a senior in the well-known secondary vocational school in Chengdu, Sichuan province.
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The so-called Trial Implementation of the Regulation on Internal Affairs of Secondary Vocational Schools has 30 clauses concerning students' manner, relationship with teachers, personal appearance as well as daily schedules.
As for personal appearance, students are required to be more tidy and student-like in their dress. Boys are forbidden to have long hair and goatee beards, and girls' long hair must be tied up.
One of the regulations says: "No earrings, necklaces, rings or colorful glasses are allowed in school."
Attending a secondary vocational school has become a popular choice among junior high school graduates. This kind of school, which provides students with two years of theoretical study and one year of practical training, is more job-oriented than traditional high schools.
Majors like technology, teacher training, medical science, finance, physical education and arts are usually taught in these schools.
A relatively small number of students go to college after graduating from a secondary vocational school, while the rest begin to seek jobs immediately.
Facing the harsh job market, students in a secondary vocational school tend to be more socialized and behave more like college students than their peers in ordinary high schools. At the same time, they are less likely to listen to their teachers and abide by the schools' regulations.
"Problems like puppy love, exaggerated dressing and smoking often emerge among the students. And the school has yet to find an effective way to right the situation," Luo Daxian, director of the vocational education office of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education, told China Daily.
Luo said Sichuan is the first province in the country to launch such a regulation.
"There was no complete rule in China to regulate these students' behavior until we issued the regulation. However, this special group does need our proper and timely guidance.
"The Ministry of Education is working on a student-management regulation, which will probably be carried out this year. Sichuan's regulation will be the touchstone for national education reforms," Luo said.
No specific punishments are given for students who violate the rules. Schools will formulate their own detailed rules to implement this new provincial regulation, Luo said.
"This regulation is still at the initial stage, and we will learn more from schools' specific experiences during their implementation process," Luo said.
Opinion over the dress restriction appears to be divided among students who have already read it.
"I think dress and makeup are rather personal things. I have five piercings in each ear ,and so do some of my male schoolmates. Our teachers haven't interfered with us," Shi said.
Students in secondary vocational schools generally dress more maturely and fashionably than those in traditional high schools, where students are required to wear school uniforms and are forbidden to wear any accessory such as earrings.
He Xianyu, whose son He Hongwei studies in the Chengdu Chef Training School, says most parents of his son's schoolmates support the regulation. Many believe addiction to strange clothing, hairstyles, accessories and puppy love will divert their teenage children from learning skills that may prove vital to their success in the job market.
"Many who look stylish just do not excel in their jobs," the middle-aged mechanic said.
"Occasionally, school officials would come and check whether students are wearing inappropriate clothes or accessories, and force violators to put these things away. However, after these inspectors leave, students return to their Japanese- and Korean-style of dress," said Wu Xue, an English teacher at Sichuan Tourism School, a well-known secondary vocational school in Sichuan.
"Severe punishment rules should go with this regulation," said Wu, who is in favor of the regulation.