homework in chinese schools

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BEIJING — Chinese authorities have introduced a set of guidelines to ease the burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring for students undergoing compulsory education.

China's nine-year free compulsory education system covers primary school and junior middle school.

Jointly issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, the document specifies guiding principles and targets of the initiative.

It details requirements in areas including reducing homework and improving quality of education and after-class services provided by schools.

It also pledges to adopt a strict approval and supervision system for off-campus tutoring programs featuring curriculum subjects such as math and physics.

The following are some highlights of the document:

— Students who can't finish their written homework after hard work shall go to bed on time.

— Education authorities shall improve free online learning services.

— Local governments shall stop approving establishment of new off-campus curriculum subject-tutoring institutions for students in compulsory education, and existing institutions shall be registered as non-profit institutions.

— Curriculum subject-tutoring institutions are not allowed to go public for financing; listed companies should not invest in the institutions, and foreign capital is barred from such institutions.

— Off-campus tutoring shall include no overseas education courses and their courses shall not be taught on national festivals and holidays.

— Online tutoring should pay attention to protecting students' eyesight. Each class hour should not exceed 30 minutes, the course interval should not be less than 10 minutes, and the tutoring shall end no later than 9:00 pm.

— Mainstream media, new media, billboards in public places and residential areas and online platforms shall not publish or broadcast off-campus tutoring advertisements.

— Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Changzhi, Weihai and Nantong are selected as national pilot cities to implement the guidelines.

• Ministry sets out after-school plans
• Students to be offered after-school programs
• New department to regulate tutoring

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China reduces homework load in schools

BEIJING, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese primary and junior high school students will no longer get overloaded by homework from teachers or after-school training institutions.

Primary schools should ensure that students in the first and second grades do not have written homework. Those in higher grades should complete their homework within one hour, a circular issued by the Ministry of Education stated.

Junior high school students will spend a maximum of one and a half hours on written homework each day, the circular said. It called for an appropriate amount of homework, even for weekends and summer and winter holidays.

After-school training institutions are prohibited from giving any homework to primary and junior high school students, the circular said.

Besides the workload amount, schools are required to adjust the form and content of homework in accordance with the traits of different schooling stages and subjects, as well as the needs and abilities of students.

The circular called for assigning diversified homework, covering science, physical exercise, art, social work, and individualized and inter-disciplinary homework.

It also forbids giving homework to parents, directly or indirectly, or leaving homework corrections to parents. Enditem

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China passes law to cut homework pressure on students

Local governments will be responsible for reducing burden on children

SHANGHAI (Reuters) -- China has passed an education law that seeks to cut the "twin pressures" of homework and off-site tutoring in core subjects, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

Beijing has exercised a more assertive paternal hand this year, from tacking the addiction of youngsters to online games, deemed a form of "spiritual opium", to clamping down on "blind" worship of internet celebrities.

Leave them kids alone: Parents tire of China's world-beating education system

China limits online gaming to 3 hours a week for schoolchildren, china cities push 3-child policy with cash and leave, china to set prices for after-school tutoring, china's cram schools scramble out of tutoring as crackdown looms, china education stocks plunge as analysts slash forecasts, latest on politics, macao leader ho iat seng says he will not seek second term, japan's ruling party to vote on kishida successor on sept. 27, jokowi picks prabowo aides for key posts in cabinet reshuffle, sponsored content, about sponsored content this content was commissioned by nikkei's global business bureau..

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Extending a model of homework: a multilevel analysis with Chinese middle school students

• Published: 22 March 2022
• Volume 17 , pages 531–563, ( 2022 )

Cite this article

• Jianzhong Xu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0269-4590 1 , 2 &
• Lyn Corno 3  

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Informed by two theoretical models of homework effects, we extended a model of homework on mathematics achievement in a large sample of Chinese eighth graders. Our model incorporated six clusters of homework variables – student background factors, homework characteristics, teacher variables, parent variables, student motivation, and homework behavior. Results indicated that mathematics achievement was related to at least one variable for each of the six clusters at the individual level. At the class level, mathematics achievement was associated positively with homework time, frequency, and interest, but negatively with teacher control. Finally, the combination of prior grades in mathematics and homework completion together influenced mathematics achievement. The study highlights the utility of our extended theoretical model for understanding predictive effects on achievement in a non-Western sample. The different norms and practices around homework in China are discussed, as are implications for future research.

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Homework goal orientation, interest, and achievement: testing models of reciprocal effects

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Xu, J., Corno, L. Extending a model of homework: a multilevel analysis with Chinese middle school students. Metacognition Learning 17 , 531–563 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11409-022-09296-w

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Has the “Double Reduction” policy relieved stress? A follow-up study on Chinese adolescents

• Dongfang Wang 1 ,
• Xiao-Yan Chen 1 ,
• Zijuan Ma 1 ,
• Xianchen Liu 2 &
• Fang Fan 1  

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health volume  16 , Article number:  91 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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“Double Reduction” Policy requires schools to reduce the burden of excessive homework and off-campus training for Chinese students to reduce their academic stress and promote mental health. We conducted a study in compulsory education students before and after the “Double Reduction” Policy to explore changes in mental health problems and relevant influential factors.

A total of 28,398 elementary and junior high school students completed both waves of the survey through electronic questionnaires. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Heath Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GDA-7). Demographic information was evaluated at baseline, and “Double Reduction” related factors and negative life events were measured at follow up.

The overall depression and anxiety levels significantly decreased after the “Double Reduction” Policy. Girls, poor parental marital quality, chronic physical illness, and psychiatric family history were related to increased occurrence of mental health. Sleep duration > 8 h/night, reduced homework, more extracurricular activities more time with parents, and reduced academic stress were protective factors against mental health problems.

Conclusions

The “Double Reduction” Policy has improved the mental health symptoms of students to a certain extent. Appropriately increasing sleep time, participating in more extracurricular activities and parental involvement, and reducing the burden of homework are effective ways to promote the development of students’ mental health.

Introduction

Chinese parents tend to set high expectations for their children because of the higher standards of general education. Consequently, children’s academic pressure increases thus leading to poor health outcomes [ 1 ]. The literature has pointed out that academic motivational goals to compete to get good grades and to be rewarded for their performance were positively related to anxiety symptoms [ 2 ]. Zhao and colleagues have found that highly stressful educational environments put Chinese children and adolescents at higher risk of elevated anxiety symptoms [ 3 ]. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the of adolescents’ academic stress, which is critical to promote adolescent mental health.

Students often need to complete a lot of homework and attend off-campus training to improve their academic performance. Studies have shown that students who spend more time on homework and after-school tutoring have later bedtime and shorter sleep duration [ 4 , 5 ]. Meanwhile, they also suffer from more school-related stress and are more likely to give up activities or hobbies to make way for schoolwork [ 6 , 7 ]. The stress hypothesis [ 8 ] echoes the above-mentioned situations. It argued that chronic stressor exposure (e.g., excessive homework and intensive off-campus training) could result in more severe psychopathology among adolescents. A recent study of students in Singapore found more time studying and doing homework was positively related to higher depressive symptoms [ 9 ].

The Chinese government attaches great importance to education; all Chinese children and adolescents can have a nine-year free and mandatory education. In recent years, relevant authorities have also been making efforts to reduce academic stress, preventing children and adolescents’ physical and mental health. In July 2021, the Chinese government implemented the “Double Reduction” Policy to reduce the academic burden of these students, relieve parents’ anxiety, and promote an overall healthy educational environment [ 10 ]. Specifically, the government requires schools to reduce the burden of excessive homework and off-campus training [ 10 ]. This move may relieve students’ academic pressure to a certain extent and improve their mental health. However, no existing studies have examined changes in mental health problems before and after the “Double Reduction” Policy and related predictors.

From April 21st 2021 to May 12th 2021 (Time 1, T1: before the “Double Reduction” Policy was released), we conducted a cross-sectional survey to investigate mental health in elementary and junior high school students in SZ City (a city in southern Guangdong province, China). From December 17 to 26, 2021 (Time 2, T2: after the “Double Reduction” Policy was implemented), we followed these participants again. This follow-up survey was an opportunity to explore how mental health problems changed in response to the “Double Reduction” Policy and to better understand of factors that affected the occurrence of adolescents’ poor mental health. Three specific objectives were: (a) to examine depression and anxiety prevalence rates among elementary and junior high school students at two surveys; (b) to identify the changes in depressive and anxiety symptoms before and after the “Double Reduction” Policy; and (c) to explore the predictors of changing patterns in these two variables.

Study population and data collection

This study was a two-point repeated cross-sectional survey with a nested longitudinal subsample. The first data collection wave was before the “Double Reduction” Policy and the second wave was after the “Double Reduction” Policy. Before this survey, all participants and their caregivers signed the electronic informed consent form. Our team designed a specialized platform for this project to protect data safety. The local education bureau and the department of mental health services of each school assisted in recruiting participants. All students used an anonymized student number that was assigned based on their registration status at school to log in to the platform to complete questionnaires. They were informed that they could feel free to withdraw from the study at any time. This study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of South China Normal University (SCNU-PSY-2021-094). We also open a free psychological distress hotline named “Xinqing” to provide psychological services when participants needed.

The subjects of this study were Chinese students (primary, grades 1–6; junior high school students, grades 7–9) receiving compulsory education from 152 schools in Guangdong province. We did not include grades 1–4 with the concern that they may not well understand the questionnaire due to their young age. The 9th graders were also excluded so as to follow the students for at least 2 waves before they graduated from schools. A total of 89,283 students (grades 5–8) were recruited in the first timepoint (T1), and 77,236 students (grades 5–8) were recruited in the second timepoint. In T2 survey, the students of 5th graders did not participate in T1 survey, because they were still in 4th grade when T1 survey started. Through data integration, a total of 28,542 students participated in all two web-based surveys and provided complete data on all measures. The following exclusion criteria were used to improve data quality: (a) abnormal response time; (b) inconsistent survey contents (e.g., different demographic information); and (c) having current or history of mental health illness that were identified by the caregivers or teachers. We further excluded 144 participants based on the above-mentioned criteria. Consequently, 28,398 participants were included in the analyses. We used χ 2 tests to compare the prevalence of depression and anxiety at T1 between participants who provided available data for both periods and those who had missing data at T2. There was a small but significant difference between these two groups (depression: 12.6% vs 10.2%, χ 2  = 106.24, p = 0.034, Cramer’s V = 0.012; anxiety: 9.0% vs 7.7%, χ 2  = 42.92, p < 0.001, Cramer’s V = 0.022).

Mental health indicators

Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Heath Questionnaire (PHQ-9) [ 11 ]. It consists of 9 items, responses to which range from 0-not at all, 1-several days, 2-more than half the days, to 3-nearly every day. Higher summed scores indicate higher levels of depressive symptoms. Previous work has suggested 10 as a cut-off to screen clinical depressive symptoms [ 12 ]. Psychometric properties of the PHQ-9 have been described in the Chinese population [ 13 ]. In this study, PHQ-9 showed good internal consistency in the two surveys, and the Cronbach’s α was 0.90 and 0.92, respectively.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) was used for screening and diagnosis of anxiety [ 14 , 15 ]. Seven items were assessed from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day), with a higher total score indicating greater anxiety symptoms. A cut-off score of 10 was suggested to identify the clinically significant anxiety symptoms [ 16 ]. In the present study, Cronbach’s α of the GAD-7 was 0.94 and 0.94 at T1 and T2, respectively.

“Double Reduction” policy related measures

Five self-devised questions were used to assess students’ study and living conditions after the “Double Reduction” Policy (i.e., T2) (1) reduced homework, (2) more extracurricular activities, (3) increased physical activity, (4) more time with parents, and (5) reduced academic stress. Each item is scored from 1 (significantly increase/decrease) 3 (no changes). In this study, we recorded the five items into two categories, with the original categories 1 and 2 being combined into a new category (1 = yes, 2 = no). The Cronbach’s α of the five items was 0.82. In addition, sleep duration was assessed with an item (“How much time do you sleep every day during the past 2 weeks?”). This item included five choices: 1 ≤ 5 h, 2 = 5–6 h, 3 = 6–7 h, 4 = 7–8 h, and 5 ≥ 8 h. Sleep duration > 8 h per night was considered as sleep sufficiency in this study [ 17 , 18 ].

Demographic information included sex (boys/girls), age, grade (grade 5–8), school types (public school/private school), boarding at school (yes/no), ethnicity (Han [the major ethnic group in China]/others), whether one child or not (yes/no), parental marital status (good/poor [included separated, divorced and widowed]), family income (monthly) (< ¥12,000/¥12,000–¥30,000/ > ¥30,000/unknown), caregivers’ education (below junior high school/senior high school/college or above), chronic physical illness (yes [having at least one of the following: arthritis, angina, asthma, diabetes, visual impairment or hearing problems [ 19 ]]/no), and family history of mental disorders (yes/no).

Negative life events over the past 6 months were assessed using the Chinese version of the Adolescent Self-Rating Life Events Checklist (ASLEC) at T2 [ 20 ]. The Checklist consists of 27 items covering interpersonal conflicts, academic stress, being punished, personal loss, physical health problems, and others. Participants rated each item on a five-point scale, from 1 (not at all) to 6 (extremely severe). A higher total score indicates the greater severity of stressful life events. The Cronbach’s α of the ASLEC was 0.97 in the current sample.

Statistical analysis

Analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Version 23.0. The McNemar’s test was used to examine differences in the prevalence of depression and anxiety between T1 and T2. The Chi-square test was used to compare the prevalence rates of depression and anxiety between different groups of demographic characteristics. Based on the cut-off scores (i.e., 10) of the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 at T1 and T2, four patterns of symptoms trajectories were established: (1) Persistent: those scores at T1 and T2 were both above the cut-off value, (2) Remission: those scores were above the cut-off value but were below the value at T2 below the cutoff at T2; (3) New-onset: those did not have mental health problems but presented at T2; (4) Resistance: those did not have mental health problems across two periods. This classification has been used in some previous studies [ 21 , 22 , 23 ]. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine predictors for the occurrence and patterns of depression and anxiety. Our major aim was to explore the risk and protective factors associated with increased likelihood of developing non-resistance. We set the resistance group as the referent group and compared it with the new-onset group. We also explored the influential factors associated with the decreased likelihood of developing remission. Thus, we set the persistent group as the referent group and compared it with the remission group. In the multivariate logistic regression model, odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to quantify the strength of the association. Considering that our sample size was relatively large, all statistical significance was set to be p < 0.001 (2-sided tests). Adjusted odds ratios in 1.2–1.5 (or 0.7–0.9) and > 1.5 (or < 0.7) were regarded as weak/moderate and strong associations, respectively [ 24 ].

Sample characteristics

Among 28,398 participants, 14,981 were boys and 13,417 were girls. The mean (SD) age was 12.28 (1.21) years. 13,934 students (49.1%) were from public schools, and 2317 (8.2%) boarded at schools. Other demographic characteristics are shown in Table 1 .

The impact of the “Double Reduction” policy

The PHQ-9 scores before the “Double Reduction” Policy were slightly higher than that of after the “Double Reduction” Policy (t = 4.92, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.030). Similar findings were observed in GAD-7 scores (t = 2.44, p = 0.015, Cohen’s d = 0.015). The prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms at T1 were 9.9% and 7.4% respectively, while rates slightly decreased at T2 (see Fig.  1 ). We further compared differences in the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms at each wave in demographic characteristics (see Table 1 ).

Prevalence rates and mean scores of depression and anxiety in two time points, ***p < 0.001

Changing patterns of depression and anxiety

The changing patterns of depressive symptoms were presented in Fig.  2 A. We further identified four groups of symptoms trajectory in Fig.  3 A. The persistent group (3.7%, N = 1051): met criteria (PHQ-9 score ≥ 10) at both waves; the resistance group: 84.4% (N = 23,983) of participants did not meet criteria for depressive symptoms (i.e., PHQ-9 score < 10). The new-onset group: 5.7% of the sample (N = 1606) did not report depressive symptoms at T1 but had at T2. The remission group (N = 1758, 6.2%): participants reported depressive symptoms at T1 but recovered at T2. As for the changing patterns of anxiety symptoms, we adopted the same grouping method (see Fig.  2 B). As shown in Fig.  3 B: persistent (N = 733, 2.7%), remission (N = 1376, 4.8%), new-onset (N = 1288, 4.5%), resistance (N = 25,001, 88.0%).

Change patterns of mental health problems. A Change patterns of depressive symptoms; B change patterns of anxiety symptoms

Trajectories of mental health problems. A Trajectory for depressive symptoms. B Trajectory for anxiety symptoms

Predictors of changing patterns of depression/anxiety

As shown in Table 2 , girls were more likely to show new-onset and persistent depressive or anxiety symptoms. The likelihood of developing new-onset depressive symptoms increased if the participants have a family history of mental disorders. Grade 6 students had lower odds of new-onset anxiety symptoms than other graders. Meanwhile, several predictors may also suggest a potential effect on depressive and anxiety symptoms but p values at a 0.01 level. For example, students reporting poor parental marital status were more likely to develop persistent depressive and anxiety symptoms. Those had a chronic physical illness may be at higher risk of experiencing new-onset depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Furthermore, changes in lifestyles after the implementation of “Double Reduction” Policy have significant effects on develop depressive and anxiety symptoms after controlling for demographics and negative life events. Specifically, reduced homework, more extracurricular activities, more time with parents, and reduced academic pressure were protective factors against poor mental health. In addition, students with sleep duration > 8 h per night were less likely to have new-onset and persistent mental symptoms in comparison to those who reported sleep duration ≤ 7 h per night.

This is the first study to explore the impact of the “Double Reduction” Policy on mental health among adolescents in China. We examined changing patterns of depressive and anxiety symptoms before and after the “Double Reduction” Policy. Four different patterns were identified. We further explore the influential factors of these patterns.

It is noteworthy that the prevalence of depression (9.9% vs. 9.4%) and anxiety (7.4% vs. 7.1%) slightly decreased after the policy was implemented. These findings indicated that the “Double Reduction” Policy might relieve adolescents’ mental health, echoing the literature that academic burden negatively impacts on mental health [ 9 , 25 ]. We acknowledge that this decreasing trend is small. Several assumptions might help us understand this atmosphere. First, the implementation of the “Double Reduction” Policy is still in its early stage. It is possible that the obvious positive impacts will be observed with long-term multiple follow-ups. Second, lifestyle changes caused by COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., restrictions on social activities, online classes) may adversely affect adolescents’ mental health [ 26 , 27 ]. However, it is a pity that we did not have available data to tease out its impacts. These reasons may influence the effectiveness of the “Double Reduction” Policy.

The changing patterns of depressive and anxiety symptoms showed that the majority of students exhibited very mild or no mental health at two surveys (84.4% and 88.0% for resistance of depressive and anxiety symptoms respectively). Previous studies also suggested that approximately more than half of the children and adolescents maintain a stable healthy functioning over time [ 28 ]. Costello and colleagues found that about 28.7% of adolescents reported non-depressed mood symptoms and 59.4% had low symptoms patterns across 6 years [ 29 ]. Moreover, a very small percentage of children and adolescents have persistent (all rates were about 3%) or new-onset (all rates were about 5%) mental health problems in the current study. The potential explanation for those who suffer from persistent or new-onset mental health problems, as follows: Without additional support from off-campus training courses, some students may be concerned about their grades. Meanwhile, an increase in extracurricular activities increases the risk of some students’ excessive Internet use [ 30 ], which may also affect their mental health.

We found that participants who had reduced academic stress after the “Double Reduction” Policy were less likely to report persistent and new-onset mental health problems than those who had not. Greenberger and colleagues have found that the association between academic stress and poor mental health appears stronger among Chinese students than those in western countries [ 31 ]. Academic stress is associated with the notably high learning/testing standards, outcomes, and expectations of secondary schools in China, which may play a significant role in explaining high incidences of anxiety and depression among Chinese adolescents [ 32 ]. Our analyses of the “Double Reduction” Policy related measures found that reduced homework and more extracurricular activities were protective against depressive and anxiety symptoms. Previous work has indicated that adolescents who spent long hours on homework reported higher depression level [ 9 ]. Longer homework/studying durations were associated with less nocturnal sleep and greater academic stress [ 6 , 7 ], leading to increased anxious symptoms [ 9 ]. In addition, we found participation in extracurricular activities could improve adolescents’ health, which is consistent with the literature [ 33 , 34 ].

Results in the logistic model showed that those who had sleep duration more than 8 h per night may be less likely to report new onset and persistent mental health symptoms. Consistent with the literature [ 35 , 36 ], insufficient sleep can disturb an individual’s emotional regulation, which may increase depressive and anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, coincides with previous findings [ 37 ], adolescents who spend more time with their parents are less likely to have persistent and new onset mental health problems prospectively. Parental presence may provide continuous support to the adolescent when she/he encounters challenges. It is also possible that engaging in tasks together with parents may help to minimize adolescents’ ruminative processes and facilitate greater behavioral activation; these two factors have been identified as potential mechanisms of psychotherapy for depression [ 38 , 39 ]. When considering the influence of demographic factors, our results echo previous findings that girls [ 40 ], poor parental marital status [ 41 ], chronic physical illness [ 42 ], and family history of mental disorders [ 43 ] were associated with poor mental health. Students in Grade 6 have a lower risk of new-onset anxiety, which may be explained by the fact that they were in the first stage of junior high school when we conducted our second survey. At that time, they had already passed the junior high school entrance examination and thus their study pressure was relatively lower. We suggest future psychosocial interventions in adolescents may need to take these factors into consideration.

Several limitations need to be acknowledged. Firstly, depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed by self-report questionnaires rather than clinical interviews, as well as two surveys were administered using a web-based questionnaire, which may result in potential reporting bias. Second, there was a high attrition rate, which may impact the accuracy of changes in symptoms. In the second survey (December 2021), students in grades 6 entered junior high schools through the entrance examination, and only a small number of students who stayed in the local school participated in the second survey. Although mild significant differences with small effect sizes (Cramer’s V = 0.012 and 0.022) were found for the baseline prevalence between participants who were followed up and those lost to follow-up, the results need to be interpreted with caution. Third, we used only dichotomous variables to measure lifestyle change, which provides a limited interpretation of the specific impact of the “Double Reduction” Policy on students’ learning and lives. Furthermore, the duration between two waves was 8 months, which only reflect a temporary change before and after the “Double Reduction” Policy. To our knowledge, there are no other studies to examine the effect of the “Double Reduction” Policy on students’ mental health, and our study is the first evaluation of the effect of the policy on students’ well-being. Longer follow-ups are needed to explore the long-term effects of this policy implementation on students’ well-being.

A declined trend in depression and anxiety among Chinese adolescents was observed after the “Double Reduction” Policy. More attention needs to be drawn to those at higher risk of developing persistent or new-onset mental health problems. In addition, developing psychological interventions aiming at increasing sleep duration, extending time with parents, and taking part in extracurricular activities, as well as reducing homework load and academic pressure is critical for the prevention of essential mental health problems.

Availability of data and materials

The dataset used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author (FF) on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to express their sincere gratitude to all participants for participating in the study.

The present study was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31871129); Research on the Processes and Repair of Psychological Trauma in Youth, Project of Key Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, MOE (Grant No. 16JJD190001); Guangdong Province Universities and Colleges Pearl River Scholar Funded Scheme (GDUPS2016).

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DW contributed significantly to acquisition and interpretation of data, drafting and revising of the manuscript for publication. XC and ZM were significantly involved in the conception, design, and analysis of the data. XL contributed to the drafting and revision of the manuscript and gave final approval to its publication. FF was significantly involved in the conception and design of the study as well as the revision of the manuscript and final approval of its publication. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Wang, D., Chen, XY., Ma, Z. et al. Has the “Double Reduction” policy relieved stress? A follow-up study on Chinese adolescents. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health 16 , 91 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-022-00530-6

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Students do homework at school. /CGTN

China's primary and middle schools have opened in most parts of the country. But this semester is set to be different as education authorities enforce a campaign to reduce homework stress.

Shanghai's Yan'an Middle School is among schools that have introduced the "double reduction" reforms. Beginning this semester, students will be required to finish assigned homework during the first session of after-school classes, meaning that there will be none or very little for them back home. Teachers will be available to answer questions from students on the spot.

"It took me half an hour to finish all the written homework at school. I finished everything at school yesterday and played with my brother when I got home," said Niu Jianran, a grade eight student at Yan'an.

The school has offered after-school classes for more than a decade, but they were not compulsory. Now, students are being asked to finish their homework during these sessions, reducing the pressure on them and their parents.

"Homework causes friction between children and their parents, and so it ends up taking longer. If children can finish homework under the guidance of teachers at school, it's great news for us parents," said Niu's mom.

Shanghai's education commission forbids schools to assign any written homework to first and second-grade students. The average time spent on homework for students from third to fifth grade cannot reach more than 60 minutes; for middle school students, it's 90 minutes.

Parents and students are all happier about the changes. But the next question is how to make sure the amount of homework is appropriate.

"Ninety minutes refers to the average time for most students to complete the tasks. Our lesson preparation group will adjust the amount of homework as we continue," said Xu Jun, principal at Yan'an.

The school also plans to make homework more diversified and creative to improve students' hands-on capabilities. Extracurricular activities like sports and painting will also be offered.

Nationwide, schools in different cities have also brought up different campaigns to reduce the burden on students. In eastern Jiangsu Province, for example, though some schools have not reopened yet due to COVID-19 epidemic, students are receiving online lessons in music, painting and sports to ensure they receive a comprehensive curriculum while at home.

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China’s Primary School Parents Anxious Over No-Homework Rule

To ease the burden on overwhelmed schoolchildren, China’s Ministry of Education has announced that primary schools should no longer assign homework. But far from the desired outcome of relieving stress across the board, the new policy has parents and teachers worried.

“Exercises should be finished before students leave campus,” Chen Baosheng, the country’s education minister, said Thursday. “The responsibility to teach should return to the school, as families have other responsibilities,” Chen said, referring to the current status quo, under which Chinese parents shoulder much of the responsibility for providing their children with a comprehensive education. The minister added that parents should “guide students to independently manage their studies.”

The ministry also said middle schools should not assign children homework that’s beyond the scope of the material in their textbooks. It did not explicitly say how the new rules would be enforced, or whether schools would be punished for failing to comply.

“The intention and purpose of this guidance are good and clear,” Cui Yunhuo, dean of the Institute of Curriculum and Instruction at East China Normal University, told Sixth Tone. “What’s important to note at the implementation level is that this guideline is aimed at banning repetitive written assignments, not practical assignments.” Despite Cui’s interpretation, it is unclear whether the guideline will apply to all homework or only written homework.

The professor added that the ultimate goal is to “improve the quality of assignments and early education,” referring to a need for more hands-on homework, as well as tasks that emulate real-life scenarios.

According to Cui, the problem of excessive homework during China’s compulsory education period — primary through middle school — has no one root cause. To improve the quality of education, social institutions should be more engaged in researching higher-quality assignments, rather than continuing to rely on rudimentary assignments that are time-consuming but meaningless.

Just days before, the ministry had announced a nationwide prohibition on primary and middle school students bringing cellphones to campus. But it’s the latest decree that has generated more buzz.

“This rule is impossible to enforce,” a fourth grade teacher in Shanghai’s Huangpu District, surnamed Shen, told Sixth Tone. “I don’t believe any school will strictly abide by it. Who will be supervising them, anyway?”

According to Shen, who only agreed to give her surname due to the sensitivity of the matter, primary schools were already encouraged not to assign homework to first and second graders. “But only a few schools in Shanghai, including those in Huangpu, have been following the rule,” she said. “And what has been the consequence? Our students’ academic performance is among the worst of any district in the city.”

In August 2018, the Ministry of Education said first and second graders should not be assigned written homework. The motivation at the time was to prevent children from developing eyesight problems. By 2018, 36% of all primary schoolers in China were nearsighted , while the proportion grew to 71.6% and 81%, respectively, for middle and high schoolers.

Now, some parents who once complained about having to help their kids complete their homework assignments are feeling anxious.

“If the school doesn’t assign my child homework, that means I’ll need to find the right exercises for him to do myself,” Xu Qing, the mother of a first-grader in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, told Sixth Tone.

Xu did not academically prepare her son for primary school — he was just a young child, after all — so the homework his Chinese and math teachers assigned from the first semester became a big headache for her. Xu said she would spend up to three hours each evening helping her son on his homework.

The education ministry’s new policy says primary schoolers should finish their work before leaving campus, but Xu isn’t confident her son will be able to manage this. “He’s slow to finish those assignments, and I worry this will be too much pressure for him,” she said.

However, other parents have reacted to the new announcement with more equanimity.

“When it comes to my son’s education, I’ve never relied on his school,” Cheng Lina, the mother of a first-grader in Shanghai’s Xuhui District, told Sixth Tone. “With public primary schools at least, the material they teach is too simplistic.”

Instead, Cheng sends her child to local cram schools, and together with her husband provides extra instruction in Chinese, math, and English. “That’s why I don’t really mind,” she explained. “But honestly, given this new policy, the achievement gap between kids could become more apparent — if the parents are good teachers themselves, or if they’re financially well-off, their kids will have a better chance of standing out among their peers.”

A math teacher from the same district expressed similar concerns. “The new rule will make the extracurricular training market even crazier,” she told Sixth Tone on condition of anonymity. “If the new rule is strictly implemented, teachers are going to face more pressure and have to stay longer with students on campus to ensure that they all finish their work. It will mean extra hours for us.”

For Shanghai’s primary schools, the day typically ends at 3 p.m., and even earlier on Fridays. But in Beijing, where schools finish at around 5 p.m., parents have been more receptive to the new policy. “This means schools will improve their efficiency,” one mother of a fourth-grader in the capital told Sixth Tone.

Education writer Amber Jiang also said that, based on her impressions, parents in Beijing seem mostly satisfied with the new rule. “This will mean that more off-campus time can be reserved for extracurricular exercises,” she told Sixth Tone. “Above all, the material taught by public schools is too basic: Children need supplementary learning.”

Additional reporting: Zhang Shiyu; editor: David Paulk.

(Header image: A boy does homework at his home in Shanghai, March 3, 2020. People Visual)

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• China reduces homework load in schools

Chinese primary and junior high school students will no longer get overloaded by homework from teachers or after-school training institutions.

Primary schools should ensure that students in the first and second grades do not have written homework. Those in higher grades should complete their homework within one hour, a circular issued by the Ministry of Education stated.

Junior high school students will spend a maximum of one and a half hours on written homework each day, the circular said. It called for an appropriate amount of homework, even for weekends and summer and winter holidays.

After-school training institutions are prohibited from giving any homework to primary and junior high school students, the circular said.

Besides the workload amount, schools are required to adjust the form and content of homework in accordance with the traits of different schooling stages and subjects, as well as the needs and abilities of students.

The circular called for assigning diversified homework, covering science, physical exercise, art, social work, and individualized and inter-disciplinary homework.

It also forbids giving homework to parents, directly or indirectly, or leaving homework corrections to parents.

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China’s Education Ministry: Less Homework for Young Students

In what is no doubt good news for foreign teachers in China and parents alike, the Ministry of Education has announced that primary and junior high school students should no longer be overloaded with homework. According to a circular released by the ministry, both school teachers and those in after school training institutions should refrain for giving younger children too much extra work.

Under China’s notoriously strict and grueling education system, children as young as five are sometimes given several hours of homework a night, much to the distress of parents who must supervise its completion and teachers who must mark the work.

Under the new initiative, however, primary schools have been advised to scrap written homework entirely for the first and second grades and ensure older children have no more than an hour of extra work each night after school. Junior high school students should have no more than an hour and a half of homework each day and an “appropriate” amount on weekends and during the holidays, the ministry said.

The circular also called for schools to tailor the homework according to the different age groups and abilities of individual students, and stressed that topics should be diversified across all subjects, not just Chinese, English and maths.

Meanwhile, after school training institutions, themselves extracurricular, should not give homework to primary or junior high school students at all. Parents should also not be left to make corrections to their children’s work, the directive said.

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Less homework means children move more and go to bed earlier, study suggests

Reducing the amount of homework children are given could make them more physically active and get more sleep, a new study suggests.

A trial of pupils in China found that cutting homework while also reducing screentime encouraged them to play outdoors and go to bed earlier.

As part of the scheme online gaming companies were forced to limit children to three hours a week, while at the same time teachers were instructed to reduce the amount of homework they set, and tutoring businesses were restricted in the amount of lessons they could run.

Bai Li, a lecturer in behavioural science at Bristol University ’s School for Policy Studies, who led the study, said: “The results are exciting as this type of regulatory intervention across multiple settings has never been tried before.”

Teenagers in China spend more time on homework than anywhere else in the world, at 14 hours a week, according to a report from the OECD. British children do about five hours.

The team from Bristol University analysed data from more than 7,000 primary and secondary school students in 2020 and 2021 from the Guangxi province in southern China.

Primary school pupils could not be set more than 60 minutes of homework a day, and secondary school pupils aged up to 15 not more than 90 minutes. Tutoring companies were banned from offering sessions in school holidays or at weekends, could not set exams for preschool, primary or middle school children, and could not publish rankings.

The team found that the children in the study aged nine to 18 spent on average 45 minutes less each day being sedentary.

Students were also shown to be 20 per cent more likely to meet the overall screen time recommendation of less than two hours daily after the regulations were introduced.

Bai Li said that both in China and the UK, parents often find it difficult to set and impose their own rules on things like screen time.

She said: “We know that leaving it to parents doesn’t work”, adding that it is easier for parents when they can tell their children that any more screen time would be against the law.

She added: “With these regulatory measures [in China], the onus has shifted to online gaming companies, schools and private tutoring companies to comply. This very different approach appears to be more effective, because it is aimed at improving the environment in which children and adolescents live.”

The results were published in the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity.

The researchers told The Times they are exploring whether similar rules could be feasible in the UK, but stressed that the Chinese template would have to be modified.

• Cover Story

Study shows Chinese students spend three hours on homework per day

Students in China's primary and secondary schools spend an average of three hours poring over homework assignments every day, twice the global average, according to a report by a Chinese online education institution.

The mountain of homework costs Chinese teens 10,080 hours on average before the age of 18, equaling the time of 4,032 concerts or 7,000 soccer matches, according to the report, which was conducted by Afanti based on the recorded learning behavior of its 20 million users and a deep survey of 1,000 of them.

About 45 percent of participants said their homework was too much to finish. Data show that Chinese teens spend three times as much time on homework compared with their counterparts in France, four times in Japan and six times in the Republic of Korea.

Mathematics is generally considered as the most difficult subject by the students, with 71.9 percent saying they spend the most time on math.

Homework, especially in mathematics, is also blamed for the lack of sleep for Chinese youth. The report shows that Chinese children's sleeping hours begin to decrease when they are three years old and drop below eight hours at 12 years old.

A total of 87.6 percent of high school students surveyed said they usually finish their homework after 11 pm. Students in Shanghai have the highest proportion burning the midnight oil.

When asked about their feelings, 49.3 percent of respondents said they feel frustrated and their self-esteem is being affected by time-consuming homework. More than 20 percent said they feel "suffocated and want to tear up their exercise books".

On Nov 10, a boy in Nanyang, a city in Central China's Henan province, died suddenly in his class. The boy was said to never have enough sleep as he could not finish his homework until midnight and had to get up at 6:20 am in the morning.

The incident stirred heated debate on how much homework is too much for students although homework may not necessarily be the direct cause of the boy's sudden death.

The never-ending heaps of assignments also take a toll on parents. According to the report, more than 80 percent of parents said the homework makes them exhausted. About 45 percent of them admitted to asking their children to give up on their homework and 33 percent said they once talked to the teachers about this issue.

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ELECTION 2024: Poll shows an incredibly close race in Virginia between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump

Putin signs deals with Vietnam in bid to shore up ties in Asia to offset Moscow’s growing isolation

The Associated Press

August 19, 2024, 7:48 AM

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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed at least a dozen deals with his Vietnamese counterpart on Thursday and offered to supply fossil fuels, including natural gas, to Vietnam during a state visit that comes as Moscow is seeking to bolster ties in Asia to offset its growing international isolation over its war in Ukraine .

Putin and President To Lam agreed to further cooperate in education, science and technology, oil and gas exploration and clean energy. The two countries also agreed to work on a roadmap for a nuclear science and technology center in Vietnam.

Of the 12 publicly announced agreements, none overtly pertained to defense.

Putin said the two countries share an interest in “developing a reliable security architecture” in the Asia-Pacific region with no room for “closed military-political blocs.” Lam added that both Russia and Vietnam wanted to “further cooperate in defense and security to cope with non-traditional security challenges.”

The agreements between Russia and Vietnam were not as substantial as the pact Putin signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Wednesday, which pledged mutual aid in the event of invasion, said Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and a former British ambassador to Belarus.

Putin’s recent visits to China and now North Korea and Vietnam are attempts to “break the international isolation,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

Giang said Russia is important to Vietnam for two reasons: It is the biggest supplier of military equipment to the Southeast Asian nation, and Russian oil exploration technologies help maintain Vietnam’s sovereignty claims in the contested South China Sea.

Vietnam also has licensed Russian state-controlled oil company Zarubezhneft to develop an offshore block of its southeastern coast.

On the South China Sea, Lam said that both sides would “support and ensure security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation” and the resolution of disputes peacefully and in accordance to international law without the use of force, according to official Vietnamese media.

Putin arrived in Hanoi on Thursday morning from North Korea after signing the strategic pact , which comes as both countries face escalating standoffs with the West and could mark their strongest connection since the end of the Cold War.

In Hanoi, Putin also met Vietnam’s most powerful politician, Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, according to the official Vietnam News Agency.

Putin drove to Vietnam’s Presidential Palace on Thursday afternoon, where he was greeted by school children waving Russian and Vietnamese flags.

Much has changed since Putin’s last visit to Vietnam in 2017. Russia now faces a raft of U.S.-led sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, the International Criminal Court in Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes, making it difficult for the Russian leader to travel internationally. The Kremlin rejected the warrant as “null and void,” stressing that Moscow doesn’t recognize the court’s jurisdiction.

Putin’s trip resulted in a sharp rebuke from the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, which said that “no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities.” If Putin is allowed to travel freely it “could normalize Russia’s blatant violations of international law,” it said in a statement.

The U.S. and its allies have expressed growing concerns over a possible arms arrangement in which North Korea provides Russia with badly needed munitions for use in Ukraine in exchange for Russian economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Both countries deny accusations of weapons transfers, which would violate multiple U.N. Security Council sanctions that Russia previously endorsed.

It is unlikely that Vietnam would supply significant quantities of weapons to Russia and risk the progress that it has made with NATO members on military equipment, particularly the U.S., said Ridzwan Rahmat, a Singapore-based analyst with the defense intelligence company Janes.

“I would imagine Vietnam wouldn’t want to take a risk, inviting the wrath of Western countries by supplying the Russians,” Rahmat said.

Hanoi and Moscow have had diplomatic relations since 1950, and this year marks 30 years of a treaty establishing “friendly relations” between Vietnam and Russia. Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow with the Wilson Center’s Asia Program, said Vietnam is “reinforcing” that relationship even while it diversifies with newer partners.

Evidence of the long relationship and its influence can be seen in Vietnamese cities like the capital, where many Soviet-style apartment blocks are now dwarfed by skyscrapers. A statue of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union , stands in a park where kids skateboard every evening. Many in the Communist Party’s top leadership in Vietnam studied in Soviet universities, including party chief Trong.

In an article written for Nhan Dan, the official newspaper of Vietnam’s Communist Party, Putin thanked “Vietnamese friends for their balanced position on the Ukrainian crisis” and hailed the country as a “strong supporter of a fair world order” based on international law, equality and geopolitical non-interference.

Vietnam’s pragmatic policy of “bamboo diplomacy” — a phrase coined by Trong referring to the plant’s flexibility, bending but not breaking in the shifting headwinds of global geopolitics — is being increasingly tested.

A manufacturing powerhouse and an increasingly important player in global supply chains, Vietnam hosted both U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2023.

Putin’s visit is important for Hanoi on a diplomatic level, said Gould-Davies, the former ambassador.

“Perhaps for Vietnam it’s a matter of just showing that it’s able to maintain this very agile balance of its bamboo diplomacy,” he said. “Already in the course of a year they’ve hosted visits by the heads of state of the three most powerful countries in the world, which is pretty impressive.”

For Russia, the visit seems to have been more about optics than anything else, he said, as Moscow seeks to engage and influence other countries, particularly in the so-called Global South.

“Since the war began, Putin has not been able to travel much or very far, and he’s made very few trips beyond the countries of the former Soviet space,” he said.

Vietnam has remained neutral on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But neutrality is getting trickier,

Vietnam needs support from the U.S. to advance its economic ambitions and diversify its defense ties, Parameswaran said. “It has to carefully calibrate what it does with Russia in an environment of rising tensions between Washington and Moscow.”

Bilateral trade between Russia and Vietnam totaled $3.6 billion in 2023, compared to $171 billion with China and $111 billion with America.

Since the early 2000s, Russia has accounted for around 80% of Vietnam’s arms imports. This has been declining over the years due to Vietnamese attempts to diversify its supplies. But to entirely wean itself off Russia will take time, Giang said.

Given Putin’s international isolation, Vietnam is doing the Russian leader a “huge favor and may expect favors in return,” Andrew Goledzinowski, the Australian ambassador to Vietnam, wrote on social media platform X.

“Vietnam will always act in Vietnam’s interests and not anyone else’s,” he wrote.

AP writer David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.

This story removes an incorrect reference to Lam saying that there were other deals apart from the 12 announced agreements that were not made public.

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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More Russians are learning Chinese as Moscow-Beijing ‘no-limits’ ties tighten

• The number of high school students who chose Chinese as a foreign language during their final exams has doubled in one year to 17,000
• ‘Russians are taking up Chinese because Beijing has become our main partner for decades to come,’ a tutor says

Every Sunday, Chinese tutor Kirill Burobin begins work in the early morning and is kept busy until midnight.

“Sunday is the busiest,” 20-year-old Burobin, who makes a good living with his online lessons, said.

“I have 16 hours of classes virtually without a break.”

Pummelled by multiple rounds of Western sanctions, Russia’s economic and technological development is becoming more dependent on China.

Natalia Danina, a manager at HeadHunter, the country’s top online recruitment company, said that last year there were nearly 11,000 vacancies requiring knowledge of the Chinese language, a 44 per cent increase compared to 2021.

Over the same period, the number of jobs for Chinese speakers in Russia has doubled in sales, transport and logistics, said Danina, pointing to an “accelerated transition” to Chinese-made equipment and spare parts.

Demand for Chinese speakers in energy jobs has tripled, she added.

China and Russia reaffirm ‘rock solid’ ties at meeting in Moscow

Burobin, who also studies Eastern civilisations at a top Moscow university, said that he was happy to help his students learn more about “a whole new world”.

“Russians are taking up Chinese because Beijing has become our main partner for decades to come,” he said.

“And this is just the beginning.”

In August, Avito, Russia’s leading online classified ads platform, reported a 138 per cent increase in requests for Chinese lessons in Moscow in one year.

The same figure stood at 350 per cent for the far eastern city of Vladivostok.

China has powerful industry and Russia is rich in resources, which means that our two countries can build their own internal economy

The popularity of Chinese classes might be starting to catch up with demand for English lessons in the country.

Alina Khamlova, 26, who teaches both languages, said she had only three English language students this year, compared to 12 who are learning Chinese.

One of her students is Maria, a 22-year-old designer who dreams of travelling to China to make her clothes there because it is “cheaper than in Russia”.

Another student is a 25-year-old gym coach, Ivan, who wants to work in China because Europeans “are paid very well” there.

Khamlova also said that many young people in Russia hope to study in Chinese universities now that many European establishments had become “inaccessible to them”.

While English still retains a dominant position, the number of high school students who chose Chinese as a foreign language during their final school exams has doubled in one year to 17,000, according to the state education watchdog Rosobrnadzor.

Russia’s growing isolation from the West has prompted many language schools to revise their curricula and invite teachers of the Chinese language.

Founded in 2017, the ChineseFirst language centre has seen twice as many registrations this year, said its co-founders, Wang Yinyu, 38, and his Russian wife Natalia, a 33-year-old Chinese speaker.

Wang’s family business is booming, and he is planning to open two new branches and a kindergarten in Moscow.

In Russia, “many companies have rushed to Chinese factories to order goods that have become unavailable in Russia due to sanctions,” he said in Russian.

And Chinese entrepreneurs, who are interested in exporting to Russia, are looking for bilingual employees.

Wang is glad that China and Russia are becoming closer.

“China has powerful industry and Russia is rich in resources, which means that our two countries can build their own internal economy,” he said.

“If we stand back-to-back, no one will defeat us.”