Under a proposed new law, students in Zhejiang wouldn’t be required to do homework after 9 pm. CFP
Homework, exams and most importantly, test scores – the things you have to worry about seem endless. You are definitely not alone. In China, many students are stressed out by excessive workloads. But there might be good news for some of them.
作业、测验以及最重要的考试分数 —— 你所担心的这些事似乎一直没完没了。这样想的绝非只有你一个人。在中国，许多学生都被沉重的课业负担压得喘不过气来。但有些人或许等来了好消息。
On Oct 28, the Education Department of Zhejiang province published a draft regulation on cutting student workloads to solicit public opinions. The proposed law has started a fierce debate.
10月28日，浙江省教育厅发布关于《浙江省中小学生减负工作实施方案(征求意见稿)》的公告。该方案引发了一场热议。
Among the many clauses, one guideline stands out. It grants primary school pupils the right to leave their homework unfinished after 9 pm, and junior high school students after 10 pm, with parents’ approval.
在减负方案的众多条款中，有一项格外引人注目。方案允许小学生到晚上9点、初中生到晚上10点还未能完成作业的，经家长签字确认后，可以拒绝完成剩余的作业。
Children in Zhejiang will likely welcome the move. However, the draft has met fierce objections, largely from parents. Although parents don’t want their children overwhelmed with homework, many have expressed their concerns about the effects of workload reduction, China Daily reported.
这项举措或许会受到浙江省的孩子们的欢迎。但却遭到了大多数来自家长的强烈反对。据《中国日报》报道，尽管家长也不愿意让孩子课业压力太大，但许多家长也对减负工作所带来的影响表示担忧。
There is a very practical reason for the objections: gaokao, the “all-important” national college entrance exam. If schools reduce homework assignments, “the parents, who want their children to stand out from their peers and score higher, must provide them with more after-school training,” Zhang Yi, a primary school teacher in Hangzhou, told Beijing Youth Daily.
该方案的反对声音背后，有相当实际的原因 —— “至关重要的”高考。如果学校减少了作业量，“想让孩子在考试中拿到高分脱颖而出的家长就会让孩子在校外多上辅导班，”来自杭州的小学老师张毅（化名）在接受《北京青年报》记者采访时表示。
The aim of this guideline, as the Education Department of Zhejiang explained, is to take differences among students into full consideration and make sure they get sufficient sleep.
浙江省教育厅方面称，该方案目的在于充分考虑学生差异，保障睡眠时间。
Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, also doubted the feasibility of such guidelines. “[These measures] are not practical in the current social circumstances,” he said to People’s Daily. “Even if schools make changes, it is difficult to change the pursuit of scores in a test-oriented educational environment.”
中国教育科学研究院研究员储朝晖也质疑了该方案的可行性。“（这些措施）在当前的社会环境下并不实际，”他在接受《人民日报》采访时表示。“就算学校做出了改变，也很难改变应试教育环境下对分数的追求。”
Chu suggests that it would make better sense to change the system of college admissions, making it “more ... flexible”.
储朝晖建议要对高校招生制度进行改革，令其“更为灵活”，这样才更合理。
“In many other countries, the performance of students is assessed by professional institutions rather than government. For some top colleges, students’ scores only account for 25 to 40 percent of their assessments. So students won’t spend so much of their time on scores,” Chu said.
“在许多其他国家，学生的成绩都是由专业机构做评估，政府并不参与。有些比较好的学校，学生考试的分数只占其评估比例的25%至40%。这样学生就不会把时间都用来拼考试分数，”储朝晖表示。
