Ministry reduces number of school exams

Students in first and second grade should have no written exams while students in other grades at primary schools should only have one final exam for every semester, the Ministry of Education said on Monday.

In a new notice aimed at reducing the excessive academic workload of primary and middle school students, the ministry said middle schools are allowed to organize one test at the middle of the semester and one at the end of the semester.

Some schools have organized too many tests that are too difficult. As a result, students have to frequently study hard, leading to exam-oriented education and a heavy academic burden, the ministry said, adding that the practice has harmed the students' psychological and physical health and must be rectified.

Local education authorities should not organize regional or interscholastic exams, and schools and classes should not organize weekly or monthly tests, the notice said.

In addition, schools should strictly regulate the content of their final exams and make sure the difficulty does not exceed the national syllabus. The exam questions should focus on basic knowledge and skills, and the number of questions focusing on rote memory should be reduced, the notice said.

Moreover, the exam results should be divided into four to five grades, without giving specific scores, the notice added. Parents and students should be notified of the results in appropriate ways, and the results should not be ranked or published. The schools should not use test scores to label students or to determine which class to assign them or where they should sit in class.