Written examinations have been banned in China in a reform aimed at reducing pressure on pupils in schools. This means that end of year examinations for children in Chinese schools will no longer be done between the ages of 6 and 7.
This ban is similar to the one imposed earlier in 2021 for written homework for the first and second graders as well as the one that limited the homework burden on Junior High Students to only 1.5 hours each night.
It has been found out that the written homework and even end year examinations create a huge amount of pressure on the young learners.
Parents have also experienced a lot of pressure on their part as they work tirelessly to provide the funds required to cover the huge costs that come with this kind of high-class education.
Most students were having over 20 classes each week outside the school system and this included subjects such as English and Music, or French. Besides, private instruction was also taught based on what they learnt that week in schools.
According to reports, the authorities felt that frequent examinations caused learners a huge burden and examinations also put them under enormous pressure. It has also been revealed that this has been causing mental and physical health.
According to a 2011 study, 43 high school learners from Yunnan province found out that all of them view examinations as merely the passing of examinations and getting ready to prepare for another examination.
The author’s view is that at its worst can stifle the imagination, the sense of belief and creativity of learners. These qualities are important for the eventual success in or out of the classroom.
On average, a classroom can be between 40 and 60 students and this means teachers have little time to give individual attention to all learners. If a learner cannot manage to be on the same level as the class, there are two choices parents can choose.
One of the ways is to encourage the teacher to help their children to understand each lesson by bribing the teachers. However, this approach could spell trouble if other parents bid higher leading to an informal bidding tussle.
Tutoring is another option but costs up t0 $15,000 every year. China’s tutoring sector is worth $ 100 billion per year, making it the largest tutoring sector.
In previous times, children used to sit for examinations every year in preparation for the university entrance examination. France24 called it “the dreaded gaokao”. The word dreaded meant the life of a young person in China is quite a challenging trajectory.
The latest reforms are targeting closing the educational gap in schools. Areas of good schools are being sought at a very high rate leading to skyrocketing real estate prices.
The concentration of good teachers at good schools is also notable with more public and private money reaches schools that get better-performing students.
A solution was devised whereby teachers were forcefully rotated every six years.
Besides the one-child which has now become a two-child policy, the cost of school has made having multiple children very hard economically. This has led to the slowest population growth in any years making attempts to ease the burden of school fees a necessary relief to many parents.