Shanghai education authorities have canceled final exams in English and prohibited primary schools from carrying out midterm exams, marking the latest of a range of new measures sweeping China designed to reduce the academic burden on young students.
Primary schoolers should be only given finals for Chinese and mathematics, while other subjects will be evaluated without giving specific test scores, according to a notice released by the city’s education commission last week. The document also said that first graders should not be given any written tests and that primary schools should not conduct district-wide unified examinations.
For years, authorities in China had pushed more modest reforms aimed at reducing academic demands on young students through the so-called “happy education” policy. However, the education reform agenda has accelerated dramatically in recent months.
A proposal at the Two Sessions to remove English as a compulsory subject for primary and middle school students has resulted in a fierce online debate on the value of the language in today’s China. National Committee member, Xu Jin, made the proposal on the basis that less than 10% of university graduates use English for work.
