Less work, more play for students this school year
- Source: Global Times
- [02:30 September 02 2009]
- Comments
By Lin Meilian
Primary and middle school students in Jiangsu Province started the school year with a sigh of relief yesterday as the provincial education authority issued a regulation to reduce workloads and promote physical fitness.
The excessive and time-consuming workloads are targeted by the new government policy as the main culprit for the poor exercise habits among students.
According to the regulation, no homework should be assigned to first and second grade students, while high school students should spend no more than 1.5 to 2 hours on homework assignments.
Schools are also required to schedule at least 1 hour of daily physical activity.
In addition, after-school cram classes are prohibited, freeing up more time for further physical exercise.
Although experts welcomed the new policies, some expressed concern about reducing homework.
"It's surely good news for the kids. But I think parents would end up putting the pressure back on their children, fearing they won't be able to compete in society," Zheng Ruoling, professor of education at Xiamen University in Fujian Province, told the Global Times yesterday.
In a report surveying more than 2,000 students in Shanghai's Minhang district by the local government in April, over 78 percent believe that their parents would supplement them with extra "homework", such as practicing the piano, studying calligraphy and ballet lessons, if schools cut assignments.
Only 48 percent said they could finish their homework within an hour, while about 20 percent said it takes them over two hours, according to the survey.
Some desperate students, overwhelmed by their growing workload, turn to forums such as tieba.baidu.com, where they can contract out their homework to college students for a fee.
However, some students feel that although their homework is excessive, it also provides the necessary reinforcement needed to make what they learned stick.
Zhang Zhe, 14, a student at Taiyuan No. 12 High School who spent his entire summer vacation doing homework, told the Global Times he doubts if he could remember all he learned in class without enough assignments.
"The massive workload drives me crazy, but if I had less homework, I'm afraid I'd fall behind the others. Plus, my mother would end up giving me extra assignments and buying me more books anyway," Zhang said.
