CRI听力:14-year-old Observer Invited to Shenzhen Two Sessions

This is the first time Shenzhen has had youth representatives sit in and listen to the meetings, seen as a way of engaging young people in politics and having their voices heard.

14-year-old Liu Bo was the youngest of ten youth participants and the only student invited to attend this year's sessions in Shenzhen as an observer.

As observers, Liu Bo, with the nine other youth delegates listened to the reports in meetings and the panel discussions between the members of the sessions.

But they didn't have a right to submit proposals.

In the run up to the meetings, however, Liu Bo collected about 100 suggestions from students which he put forward at a symposium a few days before, and which earned him a lot of attention. One idea was about the exam process.

"There is no way that our future is decided only by a test paper. I hope exams can be used to not only assess our performance but also help improve our all-round capabilities"

He also spoke about the so called 'Maker culture' and innovation-oriented education.

"The word 'Maker' is so popular today, while innovation represents the direction of our country's development. But schools are doing much less than expected when it comes to innovation education. I hope there will be some related courses arranged in the future."

The presence of the young observers has raised concerns over whether they fully understand what was going on during the meetings.

But the municipal committee of the Communist Youth League in Shenzhen said Liu Bo was highly suitable to represent local students because he was a member of the Chinese Young Pioneers National Working Committee.

The Chinese Young Pioneers is the country's largest children's organization for children aged between 6 and 14 years. It's run by the Communist Youth League, an organization of older youth that comes under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

Liu Bo's mother adds that her son has gained a lot of experience from attending student meetings and proposing his ideas on social problems as a student representative.

She said Liu Bo had told her that the meetings had inspired him to think more about how to make the city better rather than just focusing on issues relating to children.

Shenzhen is not the only Chinese city to invite young people to take part in political meetings.

In neighboring Zhuhai, 15 young people attended this year's local "two sessions" meetings.

For CRI, this is Wang Mengzhen.