It's not over until everybody sings

A Chinese opera singer performs at the National Grand Theatre in Beijing October 10, 2007. A program launched in China to teach traditional Peking opera in schools has drawn criticism from some Internet users who said untrained teachers and forced instruction might put off students from the 200-year-old art.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A program launched in China to teach traditional Peking opera in schools has drawn criticism from some Internet users who said untrained teachers and forced instruction might put off students from the 200-year-old art.

Classic Peking Opera items will be added to the music curriculum in 200 schools across 10 provinces in China to promote traditional culture among its younger generation, the Beijing News said Monday.

"The aim of this program is to help the children to develop an interest in the nation's unique cultural treasures," the paper quoted Wang Jun, a culture official in Beijing's education bureau, as saying.

In media commentaries, people questioned how music teachers, themselves untrained in Peking Opera, would educate students in the complex gestures and trilling vocals that characterize the art.

Only 27 percent of some 21,000 respondents to an opinion poll carried by popular web portal Sina.com, believed the course would help promote traditional Chinese culture.

"If the students are forced to learn, it might backfire and make them totally lose interest," said a post by an Internet user who called himself "Little Monkey."

China's education ministry has been criticized for other attempts to give students' a broader scope of learning.

A plan to introduce compulsory dance classes aimed at improving primary and high school children's social skills and fitness, drew fire from some parents concerned the waltz and other ballroom steps might foster puppy love between their children and dance partners.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Ken Wills/Sugita Katyal