Sleepless in Beijing

AT 11pm, Xiao Le is still at his study desk doing endless school homework and revision. He has to finish all the revisions before he could hit the sack.

In another apartment unit, a civil servant was sitting next to her son as he was struggling to complete the tasks given by his teachers.

It was his bed time but he dared not stop studying as his mother was breathing down his neck, going through his school work.

These are the usual scenarios in Beijing homes.

Due to stiff competition, school goers in the metropolitan city have to cope with heavy homework load, doing revisions and attending training classes outside school hours, leaving them little time to have a good night sleep.

A Chinese journalist told me once that she sent her son for a weekend tuition class, arriving 30 minutes early only to discover other kids were already doing revision in the classroom.

“I thought we were early but there were people who were earlier than us, ” she said.

She said her son was studying at a prestige primary school and his classmates not only work hard to stay at the top, they were also attending many other training classes as well.

“Children know nothing, so parents have to plan for them. I can’t let my son to lose out in the starting line, ” said the 36-year-old mother, who only wanted to be known as Li.

She is just one of the millions of Chinese parents, particularly those from the cities, who have been worrying about this in recent years.

Her nine-year-old kid, who is in Year 3, has his weekends occupied with various activities including drawing, English class and brain-developing training courses.

“I have to be the bad person to force my kid to excel in his studies, ” added Li.

She is aware her son is unhappy with this arrangement and she is not his favourite person.

“My son prefers to spend time with his father compared to being with me.

“I know this is not good for him but I can’t help it, ” she said.

More parents have come forward to complain about the never-ending homework of their children.

A netizen revealed that an angry father in the teacher-parents chat group asked his son’s teacher if she would be asleep by midnight.

The teacher, who sounded annoyed, replied “who is not asleep at late hours?”

“How can you sleep when my son is still busy with his schoolwork?” asked the father, who was then removed from the group.

On March 30, the Chinese Education Ministry issued a detailed guideline on sleep management for primary and secondary students.

In the notice, it states that primary pupils must have up to 10 hours of sleep a day while middle school students need nine hours and eight hours for high school goers.

It also instructed primary schools not to begin classes before 8.20am and secondary schools can only start lessons after 8am.

“If students are unable to finish their homework by that time, parents can just ask them to go to bed to make sure they get sufficient sleep, ” said the ministry’s basic education department director Lyu Yugang, as reported in China Daily.

To ensure students get enough sleep, the ministry said primary pupils must go to bed not later than 9.20pm, middle school student by 10pm and 11pm for high school students.

“Schools should control the amount of homework assigned to make sure primary school pupils can finish all written homework at school and secondary school goers can finish most of the homework in campus, ” Lyu pointed out.

Schools should not require students to go to school early for group study, he said.

In the notice, the ministry had also ordered for all private educational centres to end their classes by 8.30pm and should not assign any homework for students.

Following this directive, some schools in Beijing have adjusted their schedules.

Cui Shukun, the principal of Mapo No 2 Primary School, told China Daily that lessons start at 8.35am, 35 minutes later than before.

The Chinese school practised full-day class.

Students will have to arrive 30 minutes earlier for physical exercises.

They also get a short nap break after lunch.

The timetables vary depending on individual schools and seasons.

Cui added that some parents welcomed the change.

“Students are happier to get more sleep, ” he noticed.

Parents in Beijing have been looking forward to seeing their children’s schools make the change too.

Father Shen Yiming gave a thumbs-up to the ministry’s guideline and hoped the school where his second grade son is studying will reschedule the timetable.

“If so, everybody in the family will get more sleep, ” he told the Health Times.