School textbooks fuel Chinese soccer ambition   

Soccer textbooks for elementary and high school students will be finished by the end of this month. (Photo/Beijing Youth Daily)

(ECNS) -- A series of soccer textbooks for elementary and high school students, featuring quick response (QR) codes, 3D graphics and realistic pictures, are to be published soon, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Wednesday. 

The publisher, People's Education Press, said compilation of the textbooks would be finished by the end of this month. The books will cover soccer education at elementary, junior and senior high school levels, and aim to cover soccer knowledge and skills while cultivating teamwork, cooperation and responsibility. 

To make the textbooks more interesting, 3D graphics and realistic pictures are carefully matched with the text to demonstrate various skill levels. Furthermore, a QR code at the introduction of each skill directs users to a short video about the technique, the newspaper reported. 

More than 30 soccer experts, school education researchers and PE teachers participated in the compilation of the textbooks, the publisher said.

Last year, the State Council, or China's Cabinet, and the Ministry of Education jointly launched a campus soccer development plan, aspiring to create 200 high-level soccer teams on Chinese elementary and high school campuses within the next three years.