BEIJING, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's key education news from the past week:
-- Nearly 500,000 international students study in China
In 2018, a total of 492,185 international students from 196 countries and regions studied in China.
The number of international students increased by 3,013 over that of 2017.
About 60 percent of the international students were from Asia, with the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Pakistan ranking in the top three.
About 63,000 of them were sponsored by Chinese government scholarships.
-- China targets actions hindering school-age children from receiving compulsory education
China's Ministry of Education (MOE) on Thursday vowed to target any action that hindered school-age children from receiving compulsory education.
Local education authorities were ordered to conduct a comprehensive investigation as soon as possible in the first half of 2019.
The MOE stressed that practices in which school-age children failed to get compulsory education due to violations of laws and regulations by institutions or individuals should be rectified and the violators will be held accountable and dealt with in accordance with the law.
-- China limits student competitions to ease children's after-school homework
The MOE announced a list of government-acknowledged national student competitions Friday.
The list included 29 competitions for primary and middle school students, and was aimed to limit the number of competitions and protect children from doing excessive homework to prepare for unnecessary contests.
-- China releases new syllabus for military courses in universities
Chinese authorities have issued a revised syllabus for military theory and training courses in universities.
The document, which was jointly released by the MOE and the national defense mobilization department under the Central Military Commission, asked colleges to add military courses into their training and teaching programs, set specific credit for such courses, and record performance results into students' archives.
