Homework without books?

Yu Luo (pseudonym), a fourth-grade English teacher at a primary school in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province, feels that parents and the government are pushing her in two different directions.

When she walks along the street, she sometimes hears parents of her students talking about new draft regulations from the Ministry of Education, which state that primary schools are not allowed to assign any written homework for students.

"The parents believe that teachers will get lazy if they're not assigning written homework to students," Yu told the Global Times on Monday. "They don't understand us at all. Teachers will have more pressure as all knowledge should be absorbed by students in class and we must improve our efficiency if the draft takes effect," she said.

A new system?

With the government constantly coming under fire for the ever-increasing workloads placed on students, the Ministry of Education has on a number of occasions attempted to reduce this study burden.

The latest attempt has been a draft policy, including 10 regulations, which was posted on the ministry's website for public consideration on August 22. One of the regulations says that primary schools are not allowed to assign written homework to students. Instead, they should arrange some more practical "experiential homework" such as visiting museums or doing manual labor.

In addition, schools are being required to remove the "100 point" assessment system to avoid drawing too much attention to every score.

Teachers should use comments including "excellent, good, qualified and will-be qualified" and encouraging words to strengthen students' confidence, according to the ministry's website.

The regulations will be modified and formally published in September, when the new semester begins, Wang Dinghua, an official with the ministry's basic education department, said during an interview on Sunday, the Beijing Times reported.

On the first day the draft was published, the ministry received more than 880 messages from the public, Wang said, adding that the homework issue is controversial among Net users.

"I guess many students prefer practical homework and many parents dislike it. I'm afraid that not all students can benefit from it and it will make students with a poor study record fall even further," Yu said. "Parents only judge their children and the quality of our teaching by scores, and that won't change."

The policy follows similar regulations issued earlier this year. Beijing education authorities issued a regulation implemented on March 19, which specified that first- and second-grade students should not be assigned homework. Other primary school students could be assigned homework that could be completed within an hour.

Just lip service

The Beijing regulation was welcomed by students but worries their parents.

Hui Dongpo, the father of a first-grade student in Beijing, told the Global Times on Monday that his son's teachers invented a method to avoid assigning written homework for students by making students write Chinese characters in the air with their fingers.

"Every day my son writes in this way. Otherwise, it's difficult for him to read and write," Hui said. "As my child is in junior grade, I could allow him more time to play. But when he becomes a senior primary school student, he must do as much homework as possible to ensure he can get into a good high school."

A survey conducted in May by the 21st Century Education Research Institute, a Beijing-based non-government organization, shows that 52 percent of first- and second-grade students of primary schools in Beijing still receive written homework, the China News Service (CNS) reported Sunday.

"The ministry's draft is nothing new. Without strict accountability mechanisms, realistic enforcement of the draft is not likely," Xiong Bingqi, a vice president with the institute, was quoted by the CNS as saying.

Similar regulations are released almost every year. If they are not implemented effectively, the regulations will weaken authorities' credibility and efforts to reduce students' burdens will be turned into "performance art," Xiong noted.

In 1988, the National Education Commission, the predecessor to the Ministry of Education, released a regulation to cut the workload of primary school students. In 2000, this attempt was repeated. Ten years later, the plan appeared yet again in the country's mid- and long-term education reform and development outline, as approved by the State Council in 2010.

"Teachers and parents get used to these regulations. As for senior primary school students, we've reached a consensus that certain pieces of written homework must be assigned to help them understand and consolidate knowledge," Xiao Liping (pseudonym), a Chinese language teacher for senior primary school students in Foshan, Guangdong Province, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Passed on to kindergartens

Around 87 percent of primary and high school students have attended after-school institutions, Ge Jianping, a vice president with Beijing Normal University, said in a China Education Daily report in March.

Out of those surveyed, 68 percent said they were required to do so by their parents.

"In such institutions, students are required to do a lot of homework and some of it is just randomly assigned," Xiao said. "As a result, students' workloads become heavier and heavier."

As the workload at primary and high schools is reduced, some of it is being transferred to kindergartens.

Wang Jiaoyue, the mother of a 6-year-old girl in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, told the Global Times Tuesday that her daughter spends about 30 minutes writing homework assigned by teachers every day. It is her last year of kindergarten.

"I have to help her do her homework and both of us feel tired," the mother said. "Most primary schools in Xi'an have entrance exams. Even if children pass the exams, but can't keep up with the others, the schools will send them back to kindergartens or transfer them to worse schools."

Chu Zhaohui, a research fellow with the National Institute of Education Sciences, told the Global Times that the structure of the education system is at fault, and that teachers should play a stronger role.

"Education doesn't follow its own rules but instead follows the numerous administration orders," Chu said. "In regards to homework, teachers should have the final say. Without changes in the current education system, students will remain victims."