The Ministry of Education indicated that students in first and second grades of elementary school will not need to take written exams, while for other grades, they will only have a final exam every semester.

In all cases, the Ministry ordered to simplify the contents to be evaluated, to adjust them to the basic knowledge of every school level and reduce the number of questions that require responses by heart.

Those initiatives are part of a process that aims to radically overhaul China’s education system, amid the growing debate about the psychological consequences of the academic overload on children and adolescents on their way to university.

They also coincided in the effects on sleep schedules and frustration in most of the children, as well as the increasing pressures parents and children face due to the competition in society for the best positions.

In April, China directed elementary and junior high schools to reduce daily homework, moderate homework on weekends and vacations, and prioritize physical activities, while a few weeks ago, it banned the opening of more centers specialized in extra-curricular activities.

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