East China's Zhejiang Province is drafting a regulation to relieve primary and middle school students of their heavy study burden, according to local officials. The top priority of the new evaluation system will be to shift the basic focus from test scores to quality enrichment.

According to the regulation, senior middle school entrance examinations will not be the only enrollment standard for senior high schools.

Currently, senior middle school entrance exam scores determine what school the student enters and have a great impact on their university entrance prospects.

The new standard for senior middle school enrollment will be more comprehensive, including junior middle students' average marks and their final-term examination scores over a three-year period. The ratio of recommended students will be increased.

"As the 12-year-long fundamental education system has become universal throughout the province, the selective function of examinations to enter senior middle schools has become weak," said Liu Huiling, vice director of the Zhejiang Provincial Education Bureau's Fundamental Education Division.

The province-wide enrollment rate for children entering kindergartens three years before starting primary school reached 85 percent this September, while the senior middle school enrollment rate was 87.5 percent.

Education Bureau Director Hou Jingfang said that the new regulation is intended to prevent students from being overloaded with work and ensure that they can have enough leisure time to rest and join extracurricular activities.

The draft regulation prohibits teachers from assigning homework to primary school students from the first grade to the third grade. It restricts the amount of extracurricular homework for students in the fourth to sixth grades to 30 minutes and in junior middle schools to one hour.

Teachers are not encouraged to give written homework to senior middle school students, in order to ensure that they can enjoy other activities.

Moreover, primary and junior middle schools will be prevented from forcing their students to attend extra morning and evening courses and additional classes during holidays.

Any type of mock tests and joint examinations will be forbidden at senior middle schools and time for school activities will be monitored to guarantee students have enough rest.

However, experts pointed out that implementation of the new regulation may make current evaluation codes for enrolling college students controversial.

(China Daily September 13, 2004)