Many places in China are piloting "interrupting" homework to ensure students get sleep.

Most recently, the city of Bengbu in Anhui Province, eastern China, proposed a mechanism that allows primary school students to stop doing homework at 9 p.m. and middle school students at 9:30 p.m. if they have not finished it, after parents sign off and teachers are understanding. The aim is to ensure students get enough sleep by improving the mechanisms and encouraging teachers to assign more accurate homework.

A middle school in Hefei, Anhui Province, also implemented a “homework break mechanism” on March 10, allowing parents to sign off on unfinished homework after 10 p.m., giving priority to students’ rest.

Primary school students in Guizhou Province, southwestern China. Photo: Xinhua

In an open letter to parents, the school asked students to do their best to complete their homework, but if the workload is too much or too difficult to complete on time, parents can activate a “homework stop mechanism.”

In February, the Education Bureau of Wuping County in Fujian Province, eastern China, also announced that a “homework cut-off mechanism” would be implemented for primary school students across the county. If homework is not completed by 9:30 p.m., students will stop working and go to bed to ensure they get enough sleep.

In a letter to parents, the agency stated that if a child is unable to complete an assignment, he or she can explain it to the teacher when he or she hands it in the next day. Unfinished work does not need to be redone and teachers will make adjustments by implementing differentiated instruction to help the child learn more effectively.

This is not the first time that localities in China have implemented such a mechanism. As early as 2023, other schools in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province and Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, East China, as well as provinces such as Shandong, Jiangxi, Guangxi... have also piloted similar mechanisms to improve students' sleep time.

Previously, in July 2021, China issued the "Opinions on Further Reducing the Burden of Homework and Out-of-School Training for Students in Compulsory Education", which put forward detailed requirements for teachers to assign homework.

A 2024 report released by the Chinese Sleep Research Society found that sleep quality was generally poor among respondents, including students, office workers, and retirees. Young people, especially those born after 2000, were the true night owls, with an average bedtime of 12:33 a.m. Students slept an average of less than eight hours a night.

In late October 2024, the Ministry of Education, together with the National Health Commission and the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of China, issued a notice emphasizing the importance of preventing myopia and recommended that primary school students sleep at least 10 hours a day.

Source: https://vov.vn/the-gioi/nhieu-noi-o-trung-quoc-thi-diem-ngat-bai-tap-de-dam-bao-giac-ngu-cho-hoc-sinh-post1187373.vov