East China's Zhejiang
Province is drafting a regulation to relieve primary and middle
school students of their heavy study burden, according to local
officials. The top priority of the new evaluation system will be to
shift the basic focus from test scores to quality enrichment.
According to the regulation, senior middle school entrance
examinations will not be the only enrollment standard for senior
high schools.
Currently, senior middle school entrance exam scores determine
what school the student enters and have a great impact on their
university entrance prospects.
The new standard for senior middle school enrollment will be
more comprehensive, including junior middle students' average marks
and their final-term examination scores over a three-year period.
The ratio of recommended students will be increased.
"As the 12-year-long fundamental education system has become
universal throughout the province, the selective function of
examinations to enter senior middle schools has become weak," said
Liu Huiling, vice director of the Zhejiang Provincial Education
Bureau's Fundamental Education Division.
The province-wide enrollment rate for children entering
kindergartens three years before starting primary school reached 85
percent this September, while the senior middle school enrollment
rate was 87.5 percent.
Education Bureau Director Hou Jingfang said that the new
regulation is intended to prevent students from being overloaded
with work and ensure that they can have enough leisure time to rest
and join extracurricular activities.
The draft regulation prohibits teachers from assigning homework
to primary school students from the first grade to the third grade.
It restricts the amount of extracurricular homework for students in
the fourth to sixth grades to 30 minutes and in junior middle
schools to one hour.
Teachers are not encouraged to give written homework to senior
middle school students, in order to ensure that they can enjoy
other activities.
Moreover, primary and junior middle schools will be prevented
from forcing their students to attend extra morning and evening
courses and additional classes during holidays.
Any type of mock tests and joint examinations will be forbidden
at senior middle schools and time for school activities will be
monitored to guarantee students have enough rest.
However, experts pointed out that implementation of the new
regulation may make current evaluation codes for enrolling college
students controversial.
(China Daily September 13, 2004)