China’s Ministry of Education recently proposed a lighter workload for Chinese students. If enacted the new regulations would signify a major change in predominantly test-based, competitive Chinese schools.
Among the proposed changes are reduced testing and a ban on written homework for primary school children. Young kids would instead be given “experiential homework” like hands-on crafts, field trips, and other creative activities.
One of the major concerns with the Chinese education system is that, while Chinese students outperform other countries on international tests, they are more stressed and anxious. Chinese students also score lower on creativity than students in other countries.
A Chinese education expert, Xiong Bingqi, told the Los Angeles Times, “[Chinese students] have huge vocabularies and they do math well. However, the level of their creativity and imagination is low.”
The proposals are still being debated, but according to the China Daily, “it seems beyond doubt that the new rules will come into effect soon.”
China’s Ministry of Education has launched a series of campaigns advocating for a more hands-on education agenda, looking toward American education as a template. Ni Minjing, a physics teacher in Shanghai and the director of the Shanghai Education Commission’s basic education department, told the Shanghai Daily that Chinese students have less opportunity for hands-on experience than American students, and that means less opportunity to exercise critical thinking.
“When American high school students are discussing the latest models of airplanes, satellites and submarines,” Minjing said, “China’s smartest students are buried in homework and examination papers.”
For the time being, secondary students still face China’s national university entrance exam, known as the gaokao or high test. The exam takes place for nine hours over two days, and student results are the sole determinate for university admissions.
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