The Double Reduction Policy (Chinese: 双减政策; pinyin: shuāng jiǎn zhèng cè) is an attempt by China to reduce homework and after-school tutoring pressure on primary and secondary school students, reduce families' spending on expensive tutoring, and improve compulsory education.[1]

On 24 July 2021, Opinions on Further Reducing the Homework Burden and Off-Campus Training Burden of Students in Compulsory Education was issued by the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council of the People's Republic of China.[2] The policy was prompted by problems with high-stakes exam-oriented education, including the physical and mental health of students (e.g., lack of sleep, obesity, anxiety, and suicide).[3]

Background reason of policy formulation

Heavy time investment

The amount of time Chinese adolescents invest in their studies is among the highest in the world.[4] Students in Shanghai aged 12 to 14 spend 9.8 hours a day on on-campus studying.[4] Chinese students' average study time commitment is 55 hours per week, far beyond an international average of 44.[5]

Due to the competitive pressure of the Senior High School Entrance Examination, Junior High School students in China's first-tier cities improve their school academic performance or academic competition through extracurricular tutoring.[4] In Shanghai, more than 45 percent of students attend math tutoring classes at least four hours a week, and more than 20 percent even invest more than four hours in attending tutoring classes.[4] Students from rural areas attend four-hour “evening sessions”offered by boarding schools.[4] In Chinese high schools, “evening sessions" do not end until 11 pm.[6] And Chinese adolescents' tutoring hours during weekends increased from 0.7 hours to 2.1hours from 2005 to 2015.[7]

Lack of sleep and obesity

As students must finish their homework after cram school, their quality/quantity of sleep becomes affected. Therefore, Lack of sleep becomes a common trend among Chinese adolescents.[4][6] Lack of sleep problem is mainly caused by time-consuming homework.[8] Research conducted by the Afanti education platform in China has shown that 45% of participants have difficulties finishing homework.[9] 87.6% of interviewed junior or high schools students (aged from 13 to 18) finish homework after 10 pm and their average sleep hours are reduced to under 8 hours.[8] For primary school students (aged from 6 to 12), 13.3 percent of them suffered from insufficient sleep during weekdays.[10]

A positive correlation exists between the amount of homework given during weekdays and the proportion of overweight Chinese adolescents.[3] However, sleep duration on both weekdays and weekends shows a negative correlation with adolescent students.[3] The obesity rate among Chinese children aged 5 to 19 exceeded 18 percent in 2016, almost five times the obesity rate (4 percent) in 1975.[11] 7–9 years old young Chinese primary school students have the most significant obesity problem, "5.7% for boys and 8% for girls".[3] 19.6 percent of Grade 1 Chinese students are overweight. And the obesity rate of primary school students in grades 1-3 increases faster than students in grades 4–6.[3]

Suicide and mental health

Suicide is the highest cause of death among Chinese teenagers.[12] Seventy-nine primary and secondary school suicides in 2013 were linked to the pressure of exam-oriented education in China and fierce competition in schools.[13] Sixty-three percent of the suicides occurred in the second semester, which was closer to Senior High School Entrance Examination and 高考 "gaokao" (National College Entrance Examination). Depression caused by stress is one main factor in suicide, and more than 10% of Chinese adolescents have depression.[14] Thirty-three percent of suicides are related to family conflicts, which is even higher than the suicide rate directly caused by study stress (twenty-two percent).[14] Moreover, China currently does not provide adequate psychological resources for students with psychological problems, which causes difficulty for students solving mental health problems.[13]

Purpose of policy implementation

Alleviate parental educational anxiety and pressure

Chinese families, influenced by Confucianism and “huge income gaps linked to educational credentials,” consider their children's academic performance as an effective means of achieving upward social mobility.[14][15] Parents' high expectations are also linked to the one-child policy, implemented in 1979.[15] Because Chinese families have only one offspring and the Chinese workplace is increasingly competitive, parents place extreme demands on their child to succeed academically.[15] Because of the psychological feeling of "upper-class envy" and "lower-class fears" among Chinese parents, families tend to have significant educational expenditures, especially on expensive after-school tutoring.[16]

The high cost of education leads to significant economic pressure on Chinese families. The China Institute for Educational Finance Research (CIEFR)'s household survey showed that Chinese families spent $296 billion on preschool and primary education during 2016–2017.[17] This is despite the fact that Chinese governments fund compulsory education and school tuition is free. However, families in first-tier cities still spend an average of 16,800 yuan on education for students during the compulsory education stage.[17] Middle-class parents invested the most among all families in their children's education.[18][19] Middle-class parents want to build 'child capital' by increasing financial investment in after-school tutoring.[19]

Teachers' requirements also lead to extra burdens on Chinese parents. In China, some teachers obligate parents to help check and supervise their children's homework.[20] 91.2% of Chinese parents do so.[21] Those who fail can be reprimanded by teachers and accused of irresponsibility, which stresses the family and their relationships.[20] The Double Reduction Policy aims to alleviate this financial burden by strictly regulating the tutoring industry and reducing pressure on families.[1][22] It calls for the development of "home-school cooperative education," which guides parents toward reasonable expectations for their children. At the same time, the school provides after-school supervision to reduce parents' anxiety about tutoring classes and home supervision.[22]

Student-centered education

Opinions on Further Reducing the Homework Burden and Off-Campus Training Burden of Students in Compulsory Education specifies the following policy measures to ease students' learning burden:[2][23]

  1. Clarify the total amount of homework by category. Schools should ensure that there is no written homework to be done at home for 1st and 2nd grades, but fixed homework amount can be appropriately on campus; the average time for completion of written homework for 3rd through 6th grades is not to exceed 60 minutes, and the average time for completion of written homework for middle school is not to exceed 90 minutes.
  2. Increase the quality of homework design. Give play to the diagnostic, consolidation, and analytic functions of homework, including homework design in the education and research system, systematically design fundamental reading that comports with the traits and learning principles for the age and embody the orientation towards student-centered education. Encourage the assignment of tiered, flexible, and personalized homework, resolutely overcome mechanical and ineffective tasks, and end repetitive and punitive reading.

The double reduction policy emphasizes the student-oriented learning mode of teaching students according to their aptitude and has further realized "the cultural approach."[1][15] Schools now offer courses across a broader range of interests.[1] Schools respect every student’s “differentiated learning needs,” personal strengths, and individuality so that students can achieve well-rounded development through “after-school services.”[1]

Primary and junior high schools in China are also explicitly required to outlaw rankings of students' academic performance.[24] The Ministry of Education has emphasized students' personality rights through the double reduction policy, to avoid the negative psychological pressure caused by the public examination ranking.[25] Banning rankings protects students' psychological self-esteem, especially for adolescents who are still in a fragile growth stage.[25] The abolition of rankings and “frequent formal exams” has ensured students' enthusiasm for learning and changed China's long grade-centered and test-oriented education system.[24][25]

Public sentiment on social media

Chinese netizens have publicly shared their personal views on the double reduction policy, showing the following patterns:

  1. Among the positive topics of public concern on Weibo, 45.9% discussed educational equity. The public believed that the double reduction policy could effectively solve the long-standing unequal distribution of educational resources.[26][27]
  2. About negative topics, the prominent topic the public mentioned is policy influence on Weibo. The "topic event" that received the most comments and related posts was "Industry Impact," which mainly included problems such as bankruptcies and claims that the double reduction policy might cause to tutoring institutions.[28] The subjects of public sentiment participating in Weibo discussion were mainly students, parents, tutoring institutions, and teachers.[28] Some parents complained about how hard it was to get tuition fees back after the double reduction policy's crackdown on tutoring institutions.[26][27]
  3. On Zhihu, parents' comments opposed the double reduction policy. They argued that the policy did not decrease parents' demand for tutoring classes. Still, they only caused higher prices and even created a larger educational resource gap.[29] In addition, parents believed that competition among students still existed. The closure of private institutes could create more significant parental pressure in supervising children's academic performance.[29] And some parents believed the double reduction policy was just a product of the Chinese government to encourage fertility.[29]
  4. Teachers' comments mostly vented their frustration with the increased workload but no change in income.[28] Some teachers expressed sadness, confusion, and fear about their future personal development and the breaking of their teaching habits.[28]
  5. The information spread by “self-media accounts” and "education opinion leaders" mostly expressed negative and skeptical opinions towards the double-reduction policy.[28] Netizens' understanding was significantly influenced by “self-media accounts” and KOLs in the field of education.[28] The rational and positive voice got covered within blaming posts.[28]

Effects

Influences on the Chinese tutoring industry

About 15 million people in China were employed in off-campus education and training before the policy was published.[22] On July 23, The State Council of the People's Republic of China announced that they would no longer issue new for-profit licenses for tutoring institutions and required existing ones to stop tutoring “core curriculum courses” for students having compulsory education.[30] All after-school tutoring institutions became non-profits.[30] The Chinese government also stated this heavy regulation on tutoring industry aimed to eliminate the unequal educational resource allocation phenomenon.[31]

After the double reduction policy was implemented, 10 million people experienced unemployment.[22] New Oriental Education Technology Group Co., Ltd. is a prominent player in the Chinese tutoring industry. Its stock price hit its “lowest point of 1.68 in August 2021”.[22] Based on the purpose of cutting costs and minimizing economic losses, New Oriental Education also cut staff and stopped shifting its business focus from K-12 education consulting to quality-oriented education.[22] Overall, the tutoring industry shrunk considerably. The number of offline tutoring institutions decreased by 83.8 percent, while online tutoring institutions decreased by 84.1 percent.[26] The tutoring industry became highly fungible because schools offered a wealth of learning resources in school, and 91% of students attend those activities.[26]

Improve adolescents' mental health

The problem of Lack of sleep and mental health problem has been slightly relieved after controlling the homework amount.[32] The rate of students with depression dropped from 9.9 percent to 9.4 percent, and students having anxiety dropped from 7.4 percent to 7.1 percent.[32] The proportion of primary and secondary school students able to complete their homework at school has risen from 46 percent to more than 90 percent, so adolescents now have more time to achieve work-life balance.[26][32]

Influences on teachers

Positive effect

Under the incentive of the double reduction policy, Chinese teachers could break their inherent educational methods.[33][34] Teachers actively improved their teaching ability and the quality of teaching content.[33] To enable students to complete their homework with less workload and shorter class time, Chinese teachers started to consciously "improve the teaching efficiency in the classroom."[33]

The double reduction policy also provided a more “favorable ideological environment” and career development space for ambitious teachers with better teaching abilities.[34] Middle-aged teachers born in the 1970s and 1980s were again inspired to participate in research projects and take the lead for younger teachers.[34] Young teachers could get more career development opportunities under the double reduction policy. Young teachers' awareness of innovation and advantages in information technology helped them stand out easily.[34]

Negative effect

From 2018 to 2020, teachers were negatively concerned about the potential increase in workload and insufficient rights protection caused by the double reduction policy.[34] The reasons evoking some teachers' resistance to the double reduction policy and occupational anxiety are as follows:

  1. Home-School conflict: After implementing the double reduction policy, parents believed that their children's education should be solely the responsibility of the school so that parents would reduce their attention to their children's education.[34] However, teachers still expected parents to take responsibility for supervising their children and actively communicated with the school about the student's situation.[35][34] Besides the conflict between parents and teachers' understanding of double reduction policy, there was also a role conflict because many teachers are both parents and teachers.[35] Teachers were unable to take care of their own families because the double reduction policy requires schools to provide "after-school services and homework design." Many teachers "feel sorry for their children" because of their conflicting identities.[35]
  2. Worry about students' academic performance: Some teachers discovered that the quality of teaching decreases in the short term after reducing the amount of homework.[34] In addition, some schools only altered the name of the "final exam" or no longer publicly announced students' "ranking," but schools still required teachers to achieve a higher average score for students.[34] Some teachers believe that the essence of exam-oriented education did not change.[34] So, they worried that reducing the amount of homework would affect students' academic performance.[35][34] The teachers' responsibility for students' better future made them face severe anxiety.[35]
  3. Difficult to assign homework: Teachers reflected that it was difficult to assign flexible and personalized homework tasks.[34] Especially in the case of large class sizes in China, teachers had difficulties designing flexible homework suitable for different students.[34] Because of the problem of assigning homework and developing teaching materials, many teachers (especially unauthorized teachers) began to doubt their teaching ability and show low self-efficacy.[35] Moreover, some teachers believed that personalized homework would lead to the failure to understand the actual academic level differences between students in the homework feedback and assessment stage.[35][34]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Eryong; Xue; Li, Jian (2022-02-17). "What is the value essence of "double reduction" (Shuang Jian) policy in China? A policy narrative perspective". Educational Philosophy and Theory. 55 (7): 787–796. doi:10.1080/00131857.2022.2040481. ISSN 0013-1857. S2CID 246985777.
  2. 1 2 "中共中央办公厅 国务院办公厅印发《关于进一步减轻义务教育阶段学生作业负担和校外培训负担的意见》_中央有关文件_中国政府网". www.gov.cn. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Ren, Hong; Zhou, Zhixiong; Liu, Wenxi Kevin; Wang, Xiujiang; Yin, Zenong (January 2017). "Excessive homework, inadequate sleep, physical inactivity, and screen viewing time are significant contributors to high pediatric obesity". Acta Paediatrica. 106 (1): 120–127. doi:10.1111/apa.13640. PMC 6680318. PMID 27759894.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wei, Kan (24 February 2014). "Copying the long Chinese school day could have unintended consequences". The Conversation. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  5. ↑ Ma, Yingyi (December 17, 2019). "China's education system produces stellar test scores. So why do 600,000 students go abroad each year to study?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2023-02-27.
  6. 1 2 "A day in the life of Chinese students | HechingerEd Blog". Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  7. ↑ ""双减"之下 教育还要迎接哪些挑战". www.scjc.gov.cn. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  8. 1 2 "'Burden' of homework leaves Chinese pupils sleep-deprived, study finds". South China Morning Post. 2019-04-13. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  9. ↑ "《中国中小学写作业压力报告》结果发布，你怎么看？". www.sohu.com. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  10. ↑ Zhang, Yushu; Huang, Zhengjing; Zhang, Mei; Li, Chun; Zhao, Zhenping; Zhang, Xiao; Guan, Yunqi; Mudoti, Nyasha Grace; Wang, Limin (2023-01-06). "Sleep Status Among Children and Adolescents Aged 6–17 Years — China, 2016–2017". China CDC Weekly. 5 (1): 11–16. doi:10.46234/ccdcw2023.003. ISSN 2096-7071. PMC 9902748. PMID 36777469.
  11. ↑ Zhang, Na; Ma, Guansheng (2018-03-01). "Childhood obesity in China: trends, risk factors, policies, and actions". Global Health Journal. 2 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1016/S2414-6447(19)30115-0. ISSN 2414-6447.
  12. ↑ "The rise of youth suicide in China". The Week. November 2013. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  13. 1 2 "China's Cutthroat School System Leads to Teen Suicides". Wall Street Journal. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  14. 1 2 3 Jiang, Shan; Ren, Qiang; Jiang, Chaoxin; Wang, Lin (2021-12-01). "Academic stress and depression of Chinese adolescents in junior high schools: Moderated mediation model of school burnout and self-esteem". Journal of Affective Disorders. 295: 384–389. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2021.08.085. ISSN 0165-0327. PMID 34492431. S2CID 237442845.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Zhao, Xu; Selman, Robert L.; Haste, Helen (2015-12-31). Cheng, May (ed.). "Academic stress in Chinese schools and a proposed preventive intervention program". Cogent Education. 2 (1): 1000477. doi:10.1080/2331186X.2014.1000477. S2CID 154372408.
  16. ↑ Yu, Shuo; Zheng, Jiansong; Xu, Zhibin; Zhang, Tao (2022-05-19). "The Transformation of Parents' Perception of Education Involution Under the Background of "Double Reduction" Policy: The Mediating Role of Education Anxiety and Perception of Education Equity". Frontiers in Psychology. 13: 800039. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.800039. ISSN 1664-1078. PMC 9161288. PMID 35664177.
  17. 1 2 Liu, Yi-Ling (13 August 2019). "China's AI Dreams Aren't for Everyone". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  18. ↑ "Middle class spend less as they scrimp and save for children's education". South China Morning Post. 2018-10-16. Retrieved 2023-03-02.
  19. 1 2 Lin, Xiaoshan (2019-06-18). ""Purchasing hope": the consumption of children's education in urban China". The Journal of Chinese Sociology. 6 (1): 8. doi:10.1186/s40711-019-0099-8. ISSN 2198-2635. S2CID 256428266.
  20. 1 2 Matamoros, Cristina Abellan (2017-12-10). "Chinese parents protest against 'stress caused by children's homework'". euronews. Retrieved 2023-03-02.
  21. ↑ "Chinese students spend almost 3 hours on homework daily, three times the world average - People's Daily Online". en.people.cn. Retrieved 2023-03-02.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wang, Qichao; Luo, Xiaotong; Yang, Jie (2022). "Understanding China's Double Reduction Policy on Educational Economy": 63–69. ProQuest 2678525598. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  23. ↑ Translate, China Law (2021-11-03). "Opinions on Further Reducing the Burden on Students in the Compulsory Education State from Homework and Extracurricular Training". China Law Translate. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  24. 1 2 Hatch, T. (2021-11-03). "Surprise, Controversy, and the "Double Reduction Policy" in China". International Education News. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  25. 1 2 3 陶幸. "Is it good to abolish test rankings?-- Beijing Review". www.bj review.com. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 "'Double reduction' policy adds strength to China's education reform | english.scio.gov.cn". english.Scio.gov.cn. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  27. 1 2 徐, 佳铭. ""双减"政策背景下的教育舆情探究——基于微博数据". 艺术科技.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Jia, Weichen; Peng, Jun (2022-09-08). Zhang, Dalin (ed.). "The Public Sentiment Analysis of Double Reduction Policy on Weibo Platform". Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience. 2022: 1–9. doi:10.1155/2022/3212681. ISSN 1687-5273. PMC 9477569. PMID 36120674.
  29. 1 2 3 "China's Crackdown on Pricey Tutoring Schools Upsets Parents". VOA. 11 July 2021. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
  30. 1 2 Davidson, Helen (2021-08-03). "China's crackdown on tutoring leaves parents with new problems". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  31. ↑ "What's the end game for China's crackdown on private tutoring?". South China Morning Post. 2021-08-28. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  32. 1 2 3 Wang, Dongfang; Chen, Xiao-Yan; Ma, Zijuan; Liu, Xianchen; Fan, Fang (2022-11-28). "Has the "Double Reduction" policy relieved stress? A follow-up study on Chinese adolescents". Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health. 16 (1): 91. doi:10.1186/s13034-022-00530-6. ISSN 1753-2000. PMC 9707210. PMID 36443852.
  33. 1 2 3 Yue, Wei; Yu, Le; Yang, Yanru (2023). "The occupational anxiety of teachers caused by China's 'double reduction' policy—a study based on the grounded theory". Frontiers in Psychology. 14. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1144565. ISSN 1664-1078. PMC 10074598. PMID 37034957.
  34. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Dilemmas, Challenges and Opportunities under Double Reduction Policy Faced by Teachers in Urban Primary School of China". Frontiers in Educational Research. 5 (9). 2022. doi:10.25236/FER.2022.050904. S2CID 252328774.
  35. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Yue, Wei; Yu, Le; Yang, Yanru (2023-03-22). "The occupational anxiety of teachers caused by China's 'double reduction' policy—a study based on the grounded theory". Frontiers in Psychology. 14. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1144565. ISSN 1664-1078. PMC 10074598. PMID 37034957.
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