In a nutshell
- Vocational colleges in China extend vacations urging students to appreciate nature and find love.
- Chinese netizens dub the move as an attempt to boost plummeting birth rates.
- The country is facing a population decline as its birth rate declined for the first time in 60 years in 2022.
Several vocational colleges in China are offering a weeklong spring break for students, and the news quickly took Chinese social media by storm. The weeklong vacation is an extension of the one-day national holiday for the Qingming Festival, a traditional Chinese day on which people pay respect to their ancestors by cleaning the tombs and making offerings.
The break is dubbed by Chinese netizens as a move to boost the country’s plummeting birth rate.
According to sources, nine colleges affiliated with the Fan Mei Education Group have declared this year’s extended break from April 1 to 7 in a press report.
While the institutions did not explicitly state that the students were to find a romantic partner, they stressed the purpose behind the break: “appreciate nature and find love”.
Sichuan Southwest Vocational College of Civil Aviation asked the students in an official statement to “step out of the classroom, leave campus, enjoy… nature, and feel the beauty of spring and love, during the vacation.
College Home works and assignments
Some college authorities maintain that spring break is nothing but an opportunity to take learning beyond classrooms, including homework and assignments.
This spring break program was designed in response to feedback from students who want a break from school to meet new people, learn outside of the classroom, and experience the joys of love, according to some college authorities.
Students are asked to document their spring break activities in travel journals, video diaries, and photographic assignments, which will be displayed when schools reopen.
Reports further state the “pre-holiday guidance” for students around the theme of spring break to enjoy flowers and fall in love, to lead teachers, students, and staff to have a meaningful holiday.”
Desperate measures for desperate times
China reported this January that its birth rate declined for the first time in 60 years. It estimated 6.77 births per 1,000 people in 2022, the lowest birth rate on record, down from 7.52 births the previous year.
The country’s one-child policy, implemented in 1980, was blamed for the population decline. Families who failed to follow it were heavily fined, and in some cases, they also ran the risk of losing their jobs.
It ended in 2016, and the limit was amended to allow two children for married couples and increased further to three children in 2021.
The policy turned out to be a hard blow to the world’s second-largest economy, as it left the country with a shrinking population and falling birth rates. The provinces adopted a string of measures to encourage childbirth, ranging from cash allowances and tax concessions to the expansion of free education, maternity and paternity leaves, and better access to fertility treatments.
Certain provinces abolished all limitations on birth registrations in February, abolishing norms that previously required only married couples to register babies. Several provinces provide paid leave to newlyweds to encourage marriage and increase birth rates.
The extended vacations for college students are part of the country’s desperate measure to promote marriages and enhance childbirths.
