Foshan issued the "Ten Measures to Reduce Burden": Extend the break time to 15 minutes and have one

On January 22, the Foshan Municipal Education Bureau held a media briefing to interpret the recently issued "Notice of the Foshan Municipal Education Bureau on Further Strengthening the Work of Reducing Burdens and Improving Quality and Efficiency in Compulsory Education Schools" (hereinafter referred to as the "Ten Articles on Reducing Burdens"), which requires boarding school students to get up no earlier than 7:00 in the morning; primary school classes should start no earlier than 8:20 in the morning, and junior high schools should start no earlier than 8:00 ; starting from the spring semester of 2025, all compulsory education schools in the city will implement one physical education class per day ; and school break time will be adjusted from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.

Hu Ying, member of the Party Committee and deputy director of Foshan Municipal Education Bureau, introduced that the "Ten Measures to Reduce Burden" are ten measures proposed by the Municipal Education Bureau after comprehensively sorting out the city's achievements and weak links in reducing students' burden and improving quality around the three-year "double reduction" task. Through small incisions, it focuses on addressing the problems of heavy homework burdens for students in some schools, too long time for education and teaching in school, occupation of physical education and art courses and break time, and a high proportion of "little fat kids" and "little glasses", so as to promote the all-round development of students' morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics and labor.

Standardize work and rest time and implement a "fuse mechanism" for homework

In the face of the reality that some school students have too much homework and exams and not enough sleep, the "Ten Measures to Reduce Burden" put forward targeted measures, requiring boarding school students to get up no earlier than 7:00 in the morning; primary school morning classes no earlier than 8:20, junior high school no earlier than 8:00 ; morning classes end no later than 12:00, and afternoon classes no earlier than 14:00. The Municipal Education Bureau will issue a schedule for compulsory education schools, standardize the school's service time from morning to after-school, and guide schools to standardize students' daily routines in school based on their own teaching practices.

To ensure that students have sufficient rest time, Foshan has implemented a homework "circuit breaker mechanism" on the basis of implementing "no written homework assigned to first and second graders in primary schools, the average time for other grades in primary schools to complete written homework shall not exceed 60 minutes per day, and the average time for junior high school students to complete written homework shall not exceed 90 minutes per day". Primary school students can stop doing homework at 21:20 and junior high school students can stop doing homework at 22:00. In addition, a "no homework day" is promoted in primary schools one day a week , and no written homework will be assigned on that day. Home and school work together to guide students to independently arrange appropriate comprehensive practical activities.

"We have established a weekly homework announcement, monthly inspection, and quarterly survey system to optimize the quality of homework design, publish high-quality homework design guidelines for all subjects in primary and junior high schools, and other measures to continuously improve the level of homework design, strictly control the total amount of homework in each subject, and avoid homework clumping and repetitive and punitive homework." The head of the relevant department of the Foshan Municipal Education Bureau said.

In addition, Foshan will establish a reputation evaluation system to collect information on violations of the student burden reduction policy from work orders, letters and visits and other channels from time to time, and incorporate it into the school's reputation scoring index system.

The break time is increased to 15 minutes. Primary and junior high schools have one physical education class per day.

With the reduced academic burden and more reasonable work and rest schedules, how can we promote the more comprehensive and healthy development of students? In order to improve the physical health of students, Foshan has introduced a number of "additive" measures, such as physical education classes + big breaks, physical education classes + breaks, and physical education classes + physical education after-school services, to ensure that students have at least 2 hours of comprehensive physical activities every day.

In terms of curriculum, starting from the spring semester of 2025, all compulsory education schools in the city will implement one physical education class per day . To ensure that the physical education class hours meet the standards, physical education classes can be taught in a 3+N mode, that is, 3 regular physical education classes + N special classes, which will be included in the timetable.

In terms of recess arrangements, starting from the spring semester of 2025, the school recess time will be adjusted from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. All schools should reasonably plan and arrange the content of "sports mini-recess" to allow students to relax and rest through appropriate activities, games, exchanges, etc. At the same time, primary and secondary schools must arrange no less than 30 minutes of physical exercise during the big recess every day.

"In addition to utilizing existing sports venue resources, we also use the 'up to the sky and down to the ground' form to build some micro stadiums and micro playgrounds to revitalize school venues and meet the needs of students for exercise. At the same time, we also support schools to add AI training areas." said the head of the relevant department of the Foshan Municipal Education Bureau.

It is reported that in addition to implementing one physical education class every day, schools in the compulsory education stage must also develop and set up a variety of quality-enhancing courses such as sports, and provide "430" extracurricular care services.

Implement the "One Hour of Scientific Inquiry" activity and provide after-school services and open scientific experimental practice sites

Foshan has also implemented a number of measures to address the problems of insufficient hands-on skills, poor innovative practice skills, and weak scientific literacy of individual students. In 2023, Foshan has taken the lead in advocating the implementation of the "One Hour of Scientific Inquiry" activity in the country. The "Ten Measures to Reduce Burdens" once again clearly stipulates that science education is a necessary item for after-school service quality management. Primary and secondary schools in the city will arrange at least one hour of after-school service every day to open subject laboratories, maker education spaces, comprehensive practice activity rooms, and campus museums, etc. , to ensure that each student participates in at least one hour of rich scientific inquiry practice activities every week.

In order to strengthen the scientific education faculty and broaden scientific education resources, Foshan has implemented a full coverage action of "Science Vice Principals", and plans to coordinate 100 scientists (including scientific and technological workers) in the city to serve as science vice principals in primary and secondary schools by the end of 2025. At the same time, each school is required to set up at least one science counselor in principle and pair up with at least one institution with certain popular science functions (universities, research institutes, youth palaces, museums, science and technology venues, science and technology parks, high-tech enterprises, etc.), and regularly carry out two-way interactive expansion activities such as science lectures and scientific exploration practices through "inviting in" and "going out".

In addition, Foshan supports schools with conditions to carry out a "walking classroom" once a month to broaden students' horizons through various forms of off-campus practical activities; advocates "one hour of quality reading" every day, opens campus reading spaces, promotes all-round reading in subjects such as Chinese, mathematics, science, and physics, and improves students' core literacy.

It is reported that in order to more comprehensively reflect the development of students' comprehensive qualities, Foshan City has successively issued the "Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Quality Evaluation of Junior High School Students in Foshan City" and the "Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Quality Evaluation of Primary School Students in Foshan City (Trial)". It will be the first in the province to achieve full coverage of comprehensive quality evaluation of primary and secondary school students in the city, and form a full-process learning and growth file for students throughout the nine-year compulsory education stage, effectively leading the transformation of educational methods and improving the quality of education.

Written by: Nandu reporter Han Chengliang and intern Zhao Mengjia (source: "Foshan Education")