Beijing has decided to promote volunteering among the city's 1.78 million students, mulling to credit their volunteer experiences for reference in academic institutions' enrollment.

The move was to help students develop awareness of volunteer work and encourage them to make devotion to society, the Beijing Youth Daily quoted local education authorities as saying on Sunday.

Students could all become registered volunteers on a voluntary basis, it said, adding minors' application should be firstly approved by their guardians.

The Beijing Municipal Education Commission and the China Communist Youth League Beijing Committee, which formulated the guidelines, requested primary and middle schools to incorporate volunteer service into their curricula.

Wang Jingmei, vice principal of Jingshan School, told Xinhua Sunday that the promotion of volunteering among students was a "necessary move".

"Students will have more opportunities to get to know society through voluntary service," she said, adding that sending students to communities to help those in need would broaden their vision and strengthen their sense of social responsibility.

An outpouring of volunteering hit the headlines in China in 2008, when the country was hit by a massive earthquake and successfully hosted the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics.

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League said that more than five million volunteers helped with relief work after the magnitude-8.0 Sichuan-centered earthquake and an estimated 1.7 million people volunteered their services during the Beijing Olympics.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2009)