Recently, the general offices of the General Office of the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council issued the Opinions on Further Reducing the Students’ Homework Burden and Off-campus Training Burden in Compulsory Education, and issued a notice, requiring all localities and departments to conscientiously implement it in light of the actual situation.
The full text of "Opinions on Further Reducing Students’ Homework Burden and Off-campus Training Burden in Compulsory Education Stage" is as follows.
In order to thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee, effectively improve the level of school education, continuously standardize off-campus training (including online training and offline training), and effectively reduce the excessive workload of students in compulsory education and the burden of off-campus training (hereinafter referred to as "double reduction"), we hereby put forward the following opinions.
I. General requirements
1. Guiding ideology. Adhere to the guidance of the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the New Era, fully implement the Party’s education policy, implement the fundamental task of cultivating people by virtue, focus on building a high-quality education system, strengthen the role of school education as the main front, deepen the governance of off-campus training institutions, resolutely prevent acts that infringe on the interests of the masses, build a good education ecology, effectively alleviate parents’ anxiety, and promote students’ all-round development and healthy growth.
2. Working principles. Adhere to the student-oriented, respond to concerns, follow the laws of education, focus on the healthy growth of students’ body and mind, protect students’ right to rest, improve the overall quality of school education and teaching, actively respond to social concerns and expectations, and reduce the burden on parents; Adhere to the rule of law, treat both the symptoms and the root causes, strictly implement the compulsory education law, the law on the protection of minors and other legal provisions, and strengthen source governance, systematic governance and comprehensive governance; Adhere to government-led, multi-party linkage, strengthen government co-ordination, implement departmental responsibilities, give full play to the main role of schools, improve security policies, and clarify the collaborative responsibilities of home, school and community; Adhere to overall planning and steady implementation, fully implement the relevant provisions of the state on reducing students’ excessive academic burden, pilot key and difficult issues first, actively promote typical experiences, and ensure the smooth and orderly work of "double reduction".
3. Work objectives. The teaching quality and service level of the school have been further improved, the assignment is more scientific and reasonable, the after-school service of the school basically meets the needs of students, students return to campus better, and the training behavior of off-campus training institutions is fully standardized. Students’ excessive homework burden and off-campus training burden, family education expenditure and parents’ corresponding energy burden were effectively reduced within one year, and the results were remarkable within three years, and the people’s educational satisfaction was significantly improved.
Second, reduce the total amount and duration of homework in an all-round way, and reduce students’ heavy workload.
4. Improve the operation management mechanism. Schools should improve the management methods of homework, strengthen the overall planning of homework in discipline groups and grade groups, rationally regulate the homework structure, and ensure that the difficulty does not exceed the national curriculum standards. Establish a publicity system for homework in schools and strengthen quality supervision. It is strictly forbidden to assign homework to parents or in disguised form, and it is strictly forbidden to ask parents to check and correct homework.
5. Classify and clarify the total amount of work. The school should ensure that the first and second grades of primary school do not assign homework, and can arrange consolidation exercises appropriately in the school; The average completion time of written homework in grades three to six of primary school is no more than 60 minutes, and the average completion time of written homework in junior high school is no more than 90 minutes.
6. Improve the quality of homework design. Give play to the functions of homework diagnosis, consolidation, learning situation analysis, etc., and incorporate homework design into the teaching and research system. The system designs basic homework that conforms to age characteristics and learning rules and reflects the orientation of quality education. Encourage the arrangement of layered, flexible and personalized operations, resolutely overcome mechanical and ineffective operations, and eliminate repetitive and punitive operations.
7. Strengthen the guidance of homework completion. Teachers should guide primary school students to basically complete their written homework in school, and junior high school students should complete most of their written homework in school. Teachers should carefully correct homework, give timely feedback, strengthen face-to-face explanation, carefully analyze learning situation, and do a good job in answering questions and counseling. Students are not allowed to approve and correct their own homework.
8. Make scientific use of spare time. Schools and parents should guide students to finish the remaining written homework after coming home from school, carry out necessary schoolwork, engage in housework as much as they can, carry out appropriate physical exercise, and carry out reading and literary activities. Individual students who fail to finish their written homework after hard work should also go to bed on time. Guide students to use electronic products reasonably, control the duration of use, protect their eyesight health and prevent internet addiction. Parents should actively communicate with their children, pay attention to their psychological emotions and help them develop good study and living habits. Boarding schools should make overall arrangements for after-school study and life.
Third, improve the level of after-school services to meet the diverse needs of students.
9. Ensure after-school service time. Schools should make full use of the advantages of resources, effectively implement various after-school education activities, and meet the diverse learning needs of students on campus. Guide students to voluntarily participate in after-school services. In principle, the end time of after-school service is not earlier than the local normal off-duty time; For students with special needs, the school should provide delayed custody services; Junior high schools can set up self-study classes on weekdays. Schools can co-ordinate arrangements for teachers to implement the "flexible commuting system".
10. Improve the quality of after-school service. Schools should formulate after-school service implementation plans to enhance the attractiveness of after-school services. Make full use of after-school service time, guide students to finish their homework carefully, give remedial guidance and answer questions to students with learning difficulties, expand learning space for students with spare capacity, and carry out colorful popular science, style, art, labor, reading, interest groups and community activities. Do not use after-school service time to teach new lessons.
11. Expand after-school service channels. After-school services are generally undertaken by teachers in our school, and can also be provided by retired teachers, qualified social professionals or volunteers. The education department can organize outstanding teachers in the region to carry out after-school services in schools with weak teachers. Seriously investigate and punish teachers’ paid remedial classes outside the school according to the law and regulations, until they are disqualified from teaching. Make full use of social resources and give full play to the role of extracurricular activities such as children’s palace and youth activity center in after-school service.
12. Strengthen and improve the free online learning service. Education departments should collect and develop rich and high-quality online education and teaching resources, make use of national and local education and teaching resource platforms and high-quality school network platforms, and provide students with high-quality thematic education resources and learning resources covering all grades and disciplines free of charge, so as to promote the balanced development of educational resources and promote educational equity. All localities should actively create conditions and organize outstanding teachers to carry out free online interactive exchange and answer questions. Schools around the country should increase publicity and use, and guide students to make good use of free online quality education resources.
Four, adhere to strict governance, comprehensively regulate the behavior of off-campus training.
13. Adhere to strict examination and approval institutions. All localities will no longer approve new off-campus training institutions for students in compulsory education, and the existing discipline training institutions will be uniformly registered as non-profit institutions. The online discipline training institutions that were originally filed were changed to the examination and approval system. All provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) should conduct a comprehensive investigation of the online discipline training institutions that have been filed, and re-apply for examination and approval procedures according to the standards. If it fails to pass the examination and approval, the original registration and Internet information service business license (ICP) shall be cancelled. For non-disciplinary training institutions, all localities should distinguish between sports, culture, art, science and technology, clarify the corresponding competent departments, formulate standards by classification, and strictly examine and approve. Seriously investigate and deal with off-campus training institutions that do not have the corresponding qualifications and conduct training at multiple sites without approval according to laws and regulations. Discipline training institutions are not allowed to go public for financing, and capitalization operation is strictly prohibited; A listed company may not invest in discipline training institutions through stock market financing, and may not purchase the assets of discipline training institutions by issuing shares or paying cash. Foreign capital may not hold or participate in discipline training institutions through mergers and acquisitions, entrusted operations, joining chains or using variable interest entities. Those who have violated the rules should be cleaned up and rectified.
14. Standardize the training service behavior. Establish a training content filing and supervision system, and formulate measures for the management of training materials in off-campus training institutions. It is strictly forbidden to exceed the standard for advanced training, non-disciplinary training institutions to engage in disciplinary training, and it is strictly forbidden to provide overseas education courses. Resolutely investigate and deal with outstanding problems such as out-of-scope training, uneven quality of training, vulgar and illegal content, piracy and infringement. Strictly implement the relevant provisions of the law on the protection of minors, and off-campus training institutions shall not occupy national statutory holidays, rest days and cold and summer holidays to organize subject training. Training institutions shall not rob school teachers with high salaries; Personnel engaged in discipline training must have the corresponding teacher qualifications, and publish the teacher qualification information in a prominent position in the training institution and website; Personal information of parents and students shall not be disclosed. According to the market demand, training costs and other factors to determine the training institutions fees and standards, to the public, accept supervision. Comprehensive use of the "off-campus training service contract for primary and secondary school students (model text)". Further improve the normal investigation mechanism, timely grasp the situation and information of off-campus training institutions, and improve the "black and white list" system.
15. Strengthen normal operation supervision. Strictly control the excessive influx of capital into training institutions. The financing and fees of training institutions should be mainly used for training business operations. Unfair competition in the form of fictitious original prices, false discounts, false propaganda, etc. is resolutely prohibited, and monopoly behaviors in the industry are resolutely investigated and dealt with according to laws and regulations. Online training should pay attention to protecting students’ eyesight. Each class hour should not exceed 30 minutes, the course interval should not be less than 10 minutes, and the training should end no later than 21 o’clock. Actively explore the use of artificial intelligence technology to reasonably control students’ continuous online training time. Online training institutions are not allowed to provide and disseminate bad learning methods such as "taking photos and searching questions", which are inert to students’ thinking ability, affect students’ independent thinking and violate the laws of education and teaching. Hiring foreigners in China must comply with the relevant provisions of the state, and it is strictly forbidden to hire foreigners abroad to carry out training activities.
Five, vigorously improve the quality of education and teaching, to ensure that students learn well in school.
16. Promote the balanced development of compulsory education. All localities should consolidate the basic balanced achievements of compulsory education, actively carry out the creation of high-quality balanced compulsory education, promote the growth of new high-quality schools, and expand high-quality educational resources. Actively promote group-based education, school district governance and the construction of urban and rural school communities, fully stimulate the vitality of running schools, improve the overall level of running schools, and accelerate the narrowing of the educational level gap between urban and rural areas, regions and schools.
17. Improve the quality of classroom teaching. Education departments should guide schools to improve teaching management regulations, optimize teaching methods, strengthen teaching management, and improve students’ learning efficiency at school. Schools should start all the courses prescribed by the state, actively promote the connection between young and young sciences, help students prepare for admission, and teach strictly according to the curriculum standards at zero starting point, so as to ensure that students meet the academic quality standards prescribed by the state. Schools are not allowed to increase or decrease class hours at will, improve the difficulty and speed up the progress; Reduce the test pressure and improve the test methods, and there must be no behaviors such as preparing for the exam in advance, violating the rules, exceeding the test questions, and ranking the exams; Test scores are graded, and the tendency of only scores is resolutely overcome.
18. Deepen the reform of high school enrollment. All localities should actively improve the enrollment mode of high school students based on the examination results of junior high school academic level and comprehensive quality evaluation, and improve the examination methods and performance presentation methods according to the characteristics of different subjects. Adhere to the exam based on learning, further improve the quality of the senior high school entrance examination, and prevent problems such as off-topic, strange questions and exceeding the curriculum standards. Gradually increase the proportion of high-quality ordinary high school enrollment indicators allocated to junior high schools in the region, standardize the enrollment order of ordinary high schools, and eliminate illegal enrollment and vicious competition.
19. Incorporate into the quality evaluation system. Local party committees and governments at all levels should establish a correct view of political achievements, and it is strictly forbidden to issue entrance examination indicators or unilaterally evaluate schools and teachers by the rate of enrollment. Conscientiously implement the guidelines for the quality evaluation of compulsory education, incorporate the effect of "double reduction" into the quality evaluation of compulsory education in counties and schools, and take students’ participation in after-school services, off-campus training and the reduction of training expenses as important evaluation contents.
Six, strengthen the supporting governance, improve the ability to support.
20. Guarantee the after-school service conditions. All localities should, according to the size of students and the standards for the preparation of primary and secondary school faculty, make overall plans for the preparation of teachers. Provincial governments should formulate measures to ensure the funds for after-school services, clarify relevant standards, and adopt financial subsidies, service charges or fees on behalf of others to ensure that funds are raised in place. After-school service funds are mainly used for subsidies for teachers and related personnel who participate in after-school service. When approving the total performance pay, relevant departments should consider the factors of teachers’ participation in after-school service, and include the amount of funds for teachers’ after-school service subsidies as increments into performance pay and set up corresponding projects, not as the base for the normal approval of the total performance pay in the following year; To hire off-campus personnel to provide after-school services, after-school service subsidies can be managed according to labor costs. Teachers’ performance in after-school service should be taken as an important reference for job title evaluation, commendation and reward, and performance salary distribution.
21. Improve the cooperative mechanism between home and school. Further clarify the responsibility of home-school education, close communication between home and school, innovate collaborative methods, and promote the construction of collaborative education community. Education departments should, jointly with women’s federations and other departments, run parent schools or online family education guidance platforms, promote the construction of community family education guidance centers and service sites, guide parents to establish scientific parenting concepts, rationally determine children’s growth expectations, and strive to form a consensus on reducing burdens.
22. Do a good job in training advertising control. Relevant central departments, local party committees and governments at all levels should strengthen the management of off-campus training advertisements, and ensure that mainstream media, new media, public places, billboards and online platforms in residential areas do not publish or broadcast off-campus training advertisements. Commercial advertising activities shall not be carried out in primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, and advertisements shall not be published or disguised by using textbooks, supplementary materials, exercise books, stationery, teaching AIDS, school uniforms and school buses in primary and secondary schools and kindergartens. Seriously investigate and deal with all kinds of illegal and illegal advertising behaviors of off-campus training that exaggerate the training effect, mislead the public education concept and create parents’ anxiety according to the law and regulations.
Seven, do a solid job in pilot exploration, to ensure the steady progress of governance.
23. Clarify the requirements of the pilot work. While comprehensively carrying out the governance work, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Changzhi, Weihai and Nantong are determined as national pilots, and at least one city in other provinces is selected to carry out the pilot. The pilot contents are listed in Articles 24, 25 and 26.
24. Resolutely reduce off-campus training in disciplines. Re-examine and register the existing discipline training institutions, gradually reduce them greatly, and solve the problem of excessive abuse; Seriously investigate and deal with institutions that have serious problems such as unqualified qualifications, chaotic management, taking the opportunity to collect money, false propaganda, and profit-making with schools.
25. Make rational use of resources inside and outside the school. Encourage qualified schools to provide students with interest-based after-school service activities in their spare time for students to choose to participate. After-school service can’t meet the special needs of some students, such as developing interests and specialties. Non-discipline off-campus training institutions can be introduced to participate in after-school service, and the education department is responsible for organizing the selection for schools to choose and use, and an evaluation and withdrawal mechanism should be established to resolutely cancel the training qualification for training institutions that have problems such as low service level, maliciously recruiting students at school, failing to provide services according to regulations, disrupting school education and enrollment order.
26. Strengthen the supervision of training fees. Adhere to the public welfare nature of off-campus training, give full consideration to its characteristics involving people’s livelihood, incorporate the fees for off-campus training in compulsory education into the government-guided price management, scientifically and reasonably determine the pricing method, clarify the charging standards, and resolutely curb excessive fees and excessive profit-seeking behavior. Through third-party custody, risk reserve, etc., risk management and control are carried out on the pre-paid fees of off-campus training institutions, and the supervision of loans in the training field is strengthened to effectively prevent problems such as "difficulty in refunding fees" and "running away with money".
Eight, carefully organized and implemented, in order to achieve practical results.
27. Fully deploy the system. To strengthen the party’s leadership over the work of "double reduction", the party committees and governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) should regard the work of "double reduction" as a major livelihood project, put it on the important agenda, incorporate it into the key tasks of the leading group for education work of provincial party committees (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), and refine and improve measures in light of local conditions to ensure the implementation of the work of "double reduction". Party organizations in schools should conscientiously do a good job in teachers’ ideological work and fully mobilize the enthusiasm and creativity of teachers. Off-campus training institutions should strengthen their own party building work and give play to the role of party organizations as fighting fortresses.
28. Clear departmental responsibilities. The education department should do a good job in overall planning and coordination, strengthen the daily supervision of off-campus training institutions in conjunction with relevant departments, and guide schools to do a good job in "double reduction"; Propaganda and online information departments should strengthen public opinion propaganda and guidance, and online information departments should cooperate with education, industry and information departments to do a good job in online off-campus training supervision; The institutional establishment department should make up the teacher establishment for primary and secondary schools in time; The development and reform department shall, jointly with the departments of finance and education, formulate standards for after-school service or fees, and jointly with the departments of education, formulate guiding policies for fees of off-campus training institutions in pilot areas; The financial department should strengthen the funding guarantee for after-school services; Human resources and social security departments should do a good job in the verification of teachers’ performance pay; Civil affairs departments should do a good job in the registration of discipline training institutions; Market supervision departments should do a good job in the registration of non-disciplinary training institutions and the supervision of fees, advertising and anti-monopoly of off-campus training institutions, intensify law enforcement inspections, and seriously investigate and deal with illegal training behaviors in conjunction with the education departments according to laws and regulations; Political and legal departments should do a good job in maintaining harmony and stability; Public security departments should strengthen public security management according to law, jointly carry out intelligence information collection, judgment, early warning and prevention, and do a good job in emergency response to related stability-related incidents; The People’s Bank of China, the Banking Insurance Regulatory Commission and the Securities Regulatory Commission are responsible for guiding banks and other institutions to do a good job in pre-charge risk control of off-campus training institutions, and clean up and rectify the financing and listing of training institutions; Other relevant departments shall take responsibility according to their respective responsibilities and do a good job in implementation.
29. Jointly carry out special governance actions. Establish a special coordination mechanism for the work of "double reduction" and focus on organizing special governance actions. Set up a special working mechanism for coordination mechanism in the Ministry of Education, do a good job in overall coordination and strengthen guidance for local work. All provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) should improve the working mechanism, establish special working institutions, and define the road map, timetable and responsible persons of special governance actions in accordance with the objectives and tasks of "double reduction". Highlight key points, key links, weak areas, key targets, etc., and carry out comprehensive investigation and rectification. For violations of laws and regulations, severe punishment should be imposed according to the law and regulations, forming a warning shock.
30. Strengthen supervision and inspection and publicity and guidance. The implementation of the "double reduction" work and its actual results will be regarded as an important part of supervision and supervision, special rectification that ignores the interests of the masses, and supervision and evaluation of the government’s performance of educational duties. The establishment of accountability mechanism, the responsibility is not implemented, the measures are not in place, departments, schools and related responsible persons should be seriously investigated according to the law and regulations. All localities should set up supervision platforms and special reporting telephones to smooth the channels of supervision and reporting by the masses. All provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) should sum up the good experiences and good practices in the work of "double reduction" in a timely manner, and do a good job in publicity and promotion. The news media should adhere to the correct direction of public opinion and create a good social atmosphere.
While doing a good job in the "double reduction" of students in compulsory education, all localities should also co-ordinate the management of off-campus training for preschool children aged 3 to 6 and ordinary high school students, and must not carry out online training for preschool children. It is strictly forbidden to carry out offline discipline (including foreign languages) training for preschool children in the name of preschool classes, young bridging classes and thinking training classes. No longer approve new off-campus training institutions for preschool children and discipline-based off-campus training institutions for ordinary high school students. The management of discipline training institutions for ordinary senior high school students shall be implemented with reference to the relevant provisions of this opinion.
