Zhong Kaitong, a fourth-grader from Guangzhou, enjoyed a fun vacation this summer. Instead of attending English or math training courses.

A new guideline (指导方针) introduced by central authorities (中央政府) on July 24 helped Zhong enjoy some free time during the summer. Aiming to ease (减少) the schoolwork burden (负担) on primary and junior high school students, the guideline calls for reducing homework, improving the quality of education and regulating (规范) after-class activities, Xinhua reported.

According to the guideline, children below the third grade will not have homework anymore. It should take no more than 90 minutes for junior high school students to finish their homework. Off-campus tutoring institutions (校外培训机构) are not allowed to offer overseas education courses or advanced (超前的), national holidays or during winter and summer vacations.

More than 75% of children in Chinese cities from grades 1 to 12 are taking private tutoring courses, Global Times reported. “Parents are worried that if their children start behind, they will stay behind. Some training institutions have taken advantage of (利用) parents’ anxieties (焦虑) to make money,” said Chen Xianzhe.

“But this does not mean the tutoring courses will completely disappear, since exams still exist (存在),” said Chu Zhaohui. “Therefore, schools should improve their education quality, take the main responsibility for students’ education and not push them into tutoring courses.”

The “Five Management Items (项目)” under the Double Reduction (双减) background is a plan put in place by the Chinese government to help students lighten their homework load and push for educational reform (改革). The actual steps include homework management, sleep management, mobile phone management, reading material management, and physical fitness management.

Homework management: The goal is to encourage schools to avoid giving too much written homework, improve the quality of homework, help students to complete homework within a set time, and reduce their learning stress.

Sleep management: Ninety-eight percent of schools across the country have installed (安装) student sleep health monitoring systems to make sure students get enough sleep and prevent lack of sleep from affecting (影响) their health and learning.

Mobile phone management: Ninety-eight percent of schools strictly enforce (强制执行) mobile phone rules, keep students from using phones at school, and prevent phones from affecting their studies and lives.

Reading material management: Ninety-nine percent of schools in the whole country have cleaned up their books according to a list, provided excellent reading resources for students, and also stopped students from getting bad reading materials.

Physical fitness management: The goal is to strengthen P. E. classes, increase the percentage of primary and secondary students with excellent physical health, and make sure students are physically fit and healthy.

I run my class with four rules — be respectful, be safe, work hard and love yourself. If a child breaks one of the four rules, , I will give him a verbal warning (口头警告). If a child breaks two of the four rules, I will give the child a note with a description of the rule-breaking action. He will take it home and show it to his parents. If a child breaks three of the four rules, the child has to call his parents. The child must tell his parents what he did and why he is calling. If a child breaks the four rules, the child will go to the headmaster’s office and call his parents.

I pay more attention to good things in my classroom. The students sit in groups and each group has a name, a captain and a co-captain. They work together as a team to get points. At the end of the week, the team with the most points can get a big prize.

What’s more, my students can give each other “Warm Fuzzies”. These are balls with special eyes. I make the balls for the kids and they can give them to anyone doing something nice for someone else. The children really enjoy them and when they get a Warm Fuzzy, they usually put it on their bags and show it off with pride.