China bans overseas textbooks in primary and junior high schools

China's Ministry of Education on Tuesday banned all primary and junior high schools from using overseas textbooks.

If domestic textbooks can not meet their needs, high schools, vocational schools and Chinese-foreign-run schools are encouraged to use foreign textbooks that have been translated and published by Chinese publishing houses, the ministry said in a regulation cited by China Daily.

High schools, vocational colleges, and universities can use overseas textbooks in accordance with relevant state policies, the regulation added.

According to the state media, some schools in Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province have used overseas textbooks as a supplement to their English teaching.

Most of the local schools said that the new regulations will have little impact on their teaching as they had already made adjustments to their curriculum.

The regulation also said that education authorities should revise the textbooks when they contain disputable topics.

The authorities should carry out checks on the political correctness of textbooks, and focus on reviewing the books' political direction and values, it said.

"The political standpoint, orientation and standards should be organically integrated into the content of the textbook," it added.

If an article in the textbook is negative and if the author's historical evaluation or social image is negative, or if there is a major dispute, the article must be replaced, according to the regulation.

Textbook writers and editors, whose political positions, values and morality are negative or controversial, must be replaced, it said.