A primary student and his mother competing in a three-legged race at Huajiadi Primary School. (Photo: Li Hao/GT)
It is 4 p.m., and Zhao Xin, in her 30s, is standing outside her son's primary school waiting for him to get out of class. Her 6-year-old son is adapting to school life and so is she, since she has to help her son get through the all the homework he has each night. Once school is over, Zhao's work begins.
After returning home, Zhao needs to guide him with his homework, which includes learning Chinese characters, reading textbooks, practicing English as well as solving math problems. The whole process often takes several hours.
To make sure that every parent is doing their duty for home education, the teacher requires them to make audio recordings and take pictures with their children while helping them. The workload will double or triple when it comes to assignments given by extra-curricular English classes on weekends when Zhao needs to help her son practice for hours and finish his homework through a smartphone app required by the teachers.
"The whole thing consumes all my time and patience. But it is good for the kids, so we don't have any other options," said Zhao.
The voices calling out for less pressure for parents concerning home education are becoming increasingly louder. For parents of a primary school student, helping with their child's homework is a norm. The trend is growing so much that parents are now completing more of the homework than their children. According to a report by the China Youth Daily on November 2, more than 80 percent of the 2,001 interviewees said they witness or experience the pressure of "parent homework." In addition, more than 70 percent of them think the practice transfers too much of the work the school should be doing to the parents.
Metropolitan spoke with teachers and parents about the heavy workload and how it affects them and their children.
Transferring teaching duties
"The thing is that parents are in a very vulnerable position compared with schools," said Cui, an engineer and father of two young kids in Beijing. "Changes should be made."
Cui's eldest son just entered secondary school two months ago, and Cui felt it was like a "prison break" to finally put an end to six years spent at one of the top primary schools in Haidian district, Beijing.
"Around 80 percent of the homework, especially for lower-grade students, needs to be done by parents. It's not for kids at all," Cui said, adding that the assignments given by teachers are beyond the ability of a young child, and that primary school education has somehow become a competition of families' educational and economic background.
For example, the school required students to do research projects and write reports and papers in academic format and to make speeches and presentations using PowerPoint when young children can barely use the computer. Fortunately, because of their educational background and overseas academic experience, Cui and his wife managed to do their son's homework, spending a majority of their spare time and countless weekends on home education despite their heavy daily workload. The process was tiring and pointless and things could become really hard for parents who are too busy to help or have limited academic experience, according to Cui.
"Kids are too young for assignments like this, and they can learn little when their parents do the work for them," said Cui.
Moreover, the school stresses too much on "comprehensive development" and focuses on sports and art events more than basic knowledge and textbook learning, which pumps up the demand of extra-curricular classes, putting more pressure on parents' shoulders.
"They teach at a very quick pace at school to allow more time for sports and art activities, so parents need to either teach them at home or send them to extra lessons so that their child can catch up," Cui said. Helping out with their child's learning process is a daily routine for many.
"Part of the teachers' work now becomes the parents' work." said Cui.
