Haowu Dong, Grade 3, Shenzhen College of International Education

China’s Ministry of Education recently published an official statement, prohibiting kindergartens nationwide from turning nursery education (from 3 to 6 years old) into primary school-oriented institutions.

This means that it is a common practice for Chinese kindergartens to teach advanced toddlers some courses that should be taught in primary schools later. These courses include learning Chinese phonetic alphabets, Chinese characters, mathematic calculation, mechanical recital of poems, basic computer skills, English and others.

Actually, compared with those kindergarteners, the burden of students in primary and middle schools in China is even much heavier. In order to stand out from peers and finally get admission to top universities, almost all students in China are demanded by their parents to attend extracurricular classes provided by private tutoring institutions, such as English, math, piano, dancing, singing, painting, handwriting, gymnastics from Monday to Sunday, with only few hours left every day to do their school homework and play.

A recent survey shows that childhood obesity has been growing at an astonishing rate in China. It is predicted that the percentage of obese students aged between 7 and 18 will reach 28 percent in 2030 without proper intervention. The sharp increase in the obesity rate among the youth in China also has a strong relationship with their lack of physical activities, which is associated with heavy learning burdens.

For many years, Chinese parents and even the whole society have paid special attention to the academic performance of their children.

The squeezing of available exercise time and negligence of physical education have brought about not only obesity, but also a steady decline of youngster’s speed, perseverance, lung capacities, eye sight and many other physical organ measures in recent years.

It is reported that the percentage of Chinese primary students suffering from nearsightedness is as high as 50 percent. However, the percentage in Britain is only about 10 percent.

If Chinese government cannot make a thorough overhaul of its exam-oriented education system and evaluation standards of talent, there will be not real solution to reduce the burden of students and enhance their body constitutions.