Beijing on Monday banned written exams for six- and seven-year-olds, as part of sweeping education reforms aimed at relieving pressure on pupils and parents in China’s hyper-competitive school system.

China’s exam-oriented system previously required students to take exams from first grade onwards, culminating in the feared university entrance exam at age 18 known as the gaokao, where a single score can determine a child’s life trajectory.

“Too frequent exams … which cause students to be overburdened and under huge exam pressure,” have been axed by the Ministry of Education, according to new guidelines released Monday.

The ministry said the pressure on pupils from a young age “harms their mental and physical health.”

The regulations also limit exams in other years of compulsory education to once a term, with mid-term and mock examinations allowed in junior high school.

The measures are part of wider government reforms of China’s education sector, which include a crackdown on cram schools — seen by parents as a way to inflate their children’s educational fortunes.

In late July, China ordered all private tutoring firms to turn non-profit and barred tutoring agencies from giving lessons in core subjects at weekends and holidays, effectively crippling a $100 billion sector.

The aim is to reduce China’s education inequality, where some middle-class parents willingly fork out 100,000 yuan ($15,400) or more per year on private tutoring to get their children into top schools.

Many also snag property in schools’ catchment areas, driving up house prices.

“There is no other country that has such a strong tutoring culture (as China),” said Claudia Wang, partner and Asia education lead at Shanghai-based consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

With population growth at its slowest in decades, Chinese authorities lifted a two-child birth limit earlier this year and wish to increase incentives for parents to have more children.

Beijing city authorities last week announced that teachers must rotate schools every six years, to prevent a concentration of top talent at some schools. Education officials on Monday reiterated a ban on schools setting up “priority” classes for gifted students.

The Ministry of Education also banned written homework for first- and second-graders earlier this year, and limited homework for junior high students to no more than 1.5 hours per night.

However, many Chinese parents still regard education as a path to social mobility.

The gaokao is one of the few ways that poor, rural students can access better educational opportunities and job prospects at top universities.

A former Minister of Education, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, and five other global figures have joined the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs as senior fellows.
Peter Salovey, President of Yale University, United States of America, said this in a statement on Sunday.

Salovey also welcomed the institution’s 19 returning fellows.

Salovey listed the school’s other 2021 senior fellows as Staffan de Mistura (Italy & Sweden), Jessica Faieta (Ecuador), Anne Patterson, David Brooks and Jessica Seddon (United States),

“Jackson’s senior fellows are leading practitioners in various fields of international affairs and will spend a year or semester at Yale teaching postgraduate courses and mentoring students.

“Ezekwesili will teach two postgraduate courses on Democracy and Africa’s Political Distortions and Resolving Africa’s Economic Philosophy Dilemma, respectively, during the 2021 fall semester.

“Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs applies evidenced based scholarship to challenges of maximum global importance, such as climate change, war and peace, ethnic conflict, inequality, and migration,” he said.

According to Salovey, the world needs creative ideas and leadership to help end global conflicts and solve intractable problems.

“By establishing the Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, we will create an intimate community of outstanding faculty, practitioners and students to conduct research of great relevance to the development and adoption of international policy.

“Yale will continue to fulfil its longstanding mission to educate passionate public servants, who confront the day’s most daunting challenges with wisdom, facts, insight and courage,” Salovey added.

The new fellows include economic experts, astute commentators, publishers, bestselling authors, ambassadors, and academics.

An economic policy expert, Ezekwesili is Senior Economic Adviser to the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative.

She is a co-founder and pioneer director of Transparency International.

She is also the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Human Capital Africa, which is working in the education sector across Africa; Chairperson, School of Politics, Policy and Governance; and Chairperson of research-based citizens-led #FixPolitics Initiative.

Ezekwesili and her colleagues would join a cast of global leaders who are returning as senior Jackson fellows.

Senior Jackson fellows include global leaders like former US Secretary of State, John Kerry; former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton; former United Kingdom Secretary of State for International Development, Rory Stewart.

Ezekwesili expressed appreciation and delight to accept the globally prestigious fellowship from Yale University and the opportunity to teach its distinguished postgraduate students.