Cuts to student workload leaves more time for sports

The workload of Chinese primary students has been reduced during the past five years, according to a survey by a third-party education institute.

The Research Center on Compulsory Education of Southwest University in Chongqing, questioned more than 100,000 students from 14 provinces of China, and found that in 2014, only 27 percent had more than 30 lessons a week while in 2010, the proportion was 39 percent.

The survey also found that last year, 37 percent of students had to spend more than one hour doing homework. The proportion was 48 percent five years ago.

Song Naiqing, director of the center, said the shrinking workload mainly resulted from the cancellation of junior middle school entrance exams in many cities and provinces during the past five years.

"After the exams were cancelled, whether the students could be admitted to a good junior middle school was no longer decided by exam results, which reduced many parents' motive to push their children to work hard by, for example, asking them to do more practice or take more tutorial classes," Song said.

Tao Xiping, a national education advisor and a renowned educator, agreed.

"The cancellation of exams helps primary students get away from test-oriented education and so their workload was reduced," he said.

As the time spent on having classes and doing homework was reduced, the time students devoted to sports has increased, which improved their physical health, the survey found.

Primary students who spent more than one hour doing sports every day had increased from 58 percent in 2010 to 72 percent in 2014. Their average height rose from 136 centimeters in 2010 to 138 centimeters four years later.