Study: Pupils do too much homework

Chinese children spend too much time studying and not enough on activities that develop their social skills, which could affect their ability to forge personal and professional relationships as adults, research shows.

A study by the China National Children's Center found that while 48 percent of youngsters attend cram sessions after school, more than half say they rarely have time to play with friends.

The Blue Book of Children: The Annual Report on Children's Participation 2017, which was released on Thursday, also found almost a third of primary school children spend more than two hours on homework on school days, twice the maximum time recommended for that age group by the Ministry of Education.