Action taken to ease burden on students

Grades important

Lu Jingxuan, the mother of a kindergarten pupil in Beijing's Dongcheng district, also welcomes the new policy.

Her son's weekly English-language tutoring courses have been suspended since March, as the city tightens regulations on courses for preschool pupils.

"For young children, I think the development of good life and learning habits and knowing how to make friends are more important than academic grades," said Lu, who has not made her son take any new courses.

Although he is still at kindergarten, she is concerned about his future academic performance. Many parents she knows have signed their children up for a range of tutoring courses.

"I want him to know that good grades are important and can help him get closer to his life goals, but more important than academic achievements is his ability to acquire knowledge and knowing how to use it," Lu said.

However, some parents doubt whether the action taken by the government to reduce the academic burden on primary and middle school students will work.

They fear that with schools reducing the amount of homework, making tests easier and placing less emphasis on the importance of scores－along with the strict restrictions imposed on after-school tutoring courses－there are few options to ensure their children achieve good marks in high school and college entrance exams.

The mother of a fifth-grade student in Haidian district, Beijing, who wanted to be known only as Wei, said she has become more worried about her son's future following the introduction of the new policy.

She said the government has made more efforts to promote vocational education, and more students who fail to achieve good scores in the high school entrance exam are attending vocational high schools.