Program launched to entice students to visit museums

Beijing museums launched a program to encourage students to conduct immersion studies and visit museums in May.

The program was launched on Friday by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission and Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage.

A total of 152 of the city's 165 museums are participating in the program. Museums design activities for children from different age groups depending on their specialties.

The China Agricultural Museum has designed "seed activities" for middle school students, show them how to plant seeds.

It also offers tour of facilities to primary school students, helping them understand how agricultural facilities work.

Luo Jie, deputy director of education commission, said Beijing, as the capital of China, has many cultural heritages and historical legacies, which are important teaching materials for schools."Schools should take advantage of the education resources, turning the social cultural resources into practical teaching and curricula materials," he said, adding he hopes society can make more efforts to train youths.

The capital invests nearly 200 million yuan ($33 million) each year on the project for students' extracurricular activities.

It provides 150 yuan for urban students and 200 yuan for suburb students to cover entrance tickets and travel costs. It aims to guarantee that each student visits museums twice for free.