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Mathematics class provided by lead-
ing training organisation Xueersi（學
而思）for my son, as he has to stay
in school for one more hour. That is
quite tiring for him,” Li says.
The “double reduction” policy
came with many supporting meas-
ures. One of them is to make students
stay at school longer by providing
free after-school services. Teachers
will either help students finish their
homework or carry out extracur-
ricular activities based on students'
interests during the extra hours after
school, according to a circular issued
in June by the Ministry of Education.
“But if my son fails to perform
well in school when he goes to high
school, I will still sign him up for pri- Yi Zhishan, Zhou’s nine-year-old son, is doing homework.
vate tutoring classes,” Li says. (Photo Courtesy of Zhou Chunmei)
Many parents in China like Li are
still worried about their children’s ed- of Yunnan province. The English tu- Her nine-year-old son Yi Zhishan
ucation, although the “double reduc- toring agency her son used to go for feels happy about the change. His
tion” policy aims to reduce student’s classes has stopped offering lessons weekends used to be filled with off-
burden and ease parents' anxiety. after the policy was introduced. Luck- campus classes since he was seven
Another anxious parent is Zhou ily, she received a full refund from the with drawing, piano, programming,
Chunmei in Kunming, the capital city agency. tennis, and English classes.
“The English class used to take
three hours. Now I can spend time
with my friends and family instead,”
Yi says. “I am so happy that I can go to
amusement parks more often!”
But his mother is still planning to
sign him up for English classes later.
“I will wait for a while to see how the
policy is implemented. If the restric-
tion loosens, I will get my son to do
English tutoring again,” she says.
Zhou is worried about her son fall-
ing behind his peers. “If everybody
quits off-campus tutoring, then I will
certainly applaud the ‘double reduc-
tion’. Both parents and students can
escape from fierce competition and
take a breath of relief. But in fact, the
competition still exists,” Zhou says.
Another parent, Selena Zheng,
has to cancel Chinese and Mathemat-
ics private tutoring classes for her
China issued the “double reduction” policy in late July. ten-year-old son because the private
(Source: The State Council of The People’s Republic of China) tutoring agency is no longer allowed