Schools asked to cut holiday homework

Education authorities have again called for schools not to overburden primary and high school students with too much homework during the upcoming winter holiday.

Beijing Municipal Commission of Education (BCE) released a notice Friday, asking primary and high schools to reduce homework as much as possible, a staff member surnamed Wang from the BCE publicity department said Saturday.

"We've provided a general direction of homework alleviation and asked the different district education commissions to figure out specific plans to reduce it depending on their [schools] different situations," said Wang.

While there are general guidelines for the amount of homework during school time according to age, BCE has not issued specific standards for during school holidays.

Han Feng, an English teacher at Beijing No.44 Middle School, Xicheng district, said the school discusses homework arrangements at the end of every semester, but there is no specific standard.

Han said he did not absolutely support this homework alleviation policy.

"It's unnecessary to arrange homework for good students, but it's quite necessary for those who are not, for fear in the new term the latter would forget what they learnt," he said.

The director of the teaching department from Beijing No.8 Middle School, surnamed Wang, said it has not received the BCE notice yet.

"Our school attaches more importance to teacher efficiency, not improving education quality by giving students more homework," she said.

But parents embrace the policy. A father surnamed Jiang, who has a 10-year-old daughter, said he hopes she will not be assigned homework during the holiday.

"Children need more freedom during the holiday. They should do more physical exercise and whatever they like," he said.