Many students from local primary and middles school have had their burden eased and have been able to get in touch with more interesting homework since the start of the new autumn semester.

The Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau recently issued a notice on the management of student homework in compulsory education stage, emphasizing that students from grade 3 to 6 must spend less than an hour on written homework every day while junior high school students must spend less than an hour and a half on written homework every day.

The schools are also forbidden to require the parents to check or correct the students’ homework at home, according to the notice.

In response to the notice, grade 6 students at Yucai No.4 Primary School in Nanshan District received a piece of special homework from their teacher after learning the text “The Prairie” in their first Chinese class.

In the past, they were required to recite and dictate the first paragraph of the text. Now they are asked by the teacher to serve as tour guides and describe the beautiful views on the prairie according to the first paragraph text, which is more interesting from the student’s view and thus make them more willing to get involved.

The school has already taken action to ease the student’s burden since the last semester through organizing students to finish their homework during their after-school service time and surveying the students on the amount of time they spend on homework every day.

What’s more, the school also requires the teachers to do homework first before assigning it to the students.

“I have already felt that the school gives less homework to the students than before. My daughter started doing her homework after dancing class and finished it at 9 p.m.,” said Li, a mother living in Longhua District, adding that her own burden has also been lifted as there is no need to check and correct her daughter’s homework anymore.

Li stated that more attention should be paid to the quality of homework while easing the student’s burden. “Still, doing homework helps the students review and consolidate the knowledge they learn at school,” she said.

Li’s concern has been echoed by the OCT Primary School in Nanshan District. In addition to finishing the compulsory homework designed according to the requirement of the national curriculum standard, the students can also choose to do some optional homework if they have some difficulty in following the teachers in class and want to consolidate the knowledge they learn. (Wang Haolan)