Schools must take lead on students' workload

I began to cover education news in early 2018, when the authorities started to rein in the after-school tutoring sector to reduce the excessive academic burden on students attending primary and secondary schools.

I have attended news conferences organized by the Ministry of Education and interviewed parents, students, teachers and education experts on this issue and have written stories about it.

I now know just how busy and tired children are as a result of attending tutoring classes. Their parents also face huge economic pressure to help their offspring stand out among their peers.

With public schools cutting class hours and giving little homework to primary and secondary school students, parents in big cities send their children to after-school tutoring classes, which can be expensive.

The students' after-school hours during weekdays, weekends and holidays are occupied by different tutoring courses. These sessions have become a second school for students, whose parents often have to do a considerable amount of research to find the tutoring classes that can best help their children and to discover ways to get them into those that are most popular.

Many parents have told me that although they want their children to have a relaxed and happy childhood, they fear that they will be left behind if they do not take after-school classes.

Liu Yong, the father of a sixth-grade student in Shanghai, said: "To qualify for admission to a key middle school, my son has to study hard. By entering a reputable middle school, he can go on to a key high school and eventually a leading university.

"If I do not push him now, he might blame me later if he ends up in a vocational high school or college."

Chinese parents have always valued their children's education, and in turn, most children study hard to gain admission to good schools.

When I was in secondary school, I studied day and night in the hope of enrolling at a good university, but I was so busy with schoolwork that I did not have time to attend tutoring classes.

I understand the efforts made by the government to reduce students' academic burden by making homework easier and reducing school hours, but these policies have resulted in tutoring classes becoming a second school for students.

One positive change is that many primary schools have started to offer after-school services to students to align the school schedule with the needs of parents.

However, many parents are not enthusiastic about these services because they are mainly aimed at developing students' interests.

In addition to playing this role, these services should include academic courses or provide homework assistance for students. As long as the entrance exam is the only way to gain university admittance, parents will make their children put all their efforts into studying.

Schools should take the main responsibility for students' education and not push them into tutoring courses.