No Time to Play

by Xinhua Writer Qiu Lin

It's six o'clock on a cold Saturday morning. Liu Zifan reluctantly gets out of the warm bed. She has three classes awaiting -- Chinese, maths and English.

"I wish I could sleep some more," says Liu.

The 12-year-old seventh grader from Beijing Guangqumen Secondary School must take an-hour-ride, with one transfer, to get to the school for the extra curriculums that occupy her whole Saturday morning. On Sunday afternoon, she has music lessons from 3 p.m to 7 p.m. During weekdays, Liu has to get up around five in the morning, and leave home by six.

"My teacher recommends us to eat an apple in the morning so that we won't feel sleepy," she says.

Her classmate Dai Shengze seems to have an even tighter schedule on weekend. He attends a two-hour Chinese on Friday night, English and maths classes on Saturday morning, and another Chinese class on Saturday afternoon.

"I simply have no time to play. I have nothing but homework," Dai says.

Chinese children face increasing pressures on study. Most Chinese parents believe high academic credentials mean a better school, a brighter future. So they send their children to extracurricular classes like music,English and maths to develop a special talent, which later might be a stepping stone to a good school.

Some parents make their children study ahead. First graders start to take classes for second graders, and so on, therefore they can get an advantage in exams.

According to China's Law on Compulsory Education, public primary and secondary schools do not require entrance exams. Students are assigned to schools with reference to their residency.

However, a student can enroll in another desired school, if the student excels at maths or English, or has special talent in music and sports.

Liu Zifan's parents, both with secondary school education, signed up electronic keyboard class for her when she was five. They want Liu to enter a good college.

Her father Liu Jinghua, a retired taxi driver says that their daughter's education has always been the family's major expense.

Since primary school, Liu started taking the New Concept English class every Saturday morning, and Chinese, English and Olympic maths classes in the afternoon. On Sunday morning, she had to do homework at home. In the afternoon, she took Cambridge English class.

"I didn't have time to rest, except on Friday night," Liu recalls.

The family has a monthly income of about 1,700 yuan. Liu Zifan's weekend classes cost 2,000 yuan each term.

"I think it's worth the money," Liu's father says. "We do everything we can to provide her with good education, so that she will get a good job in the future."

Studies conducted by the China Youth and Children Research Center show that more than half of Chinese secondary school students study overtime and they do not get enough sleep. And more than 70 percent of primary and middle school students take tutoring classes, a heavy burden on the students.

"Childhood in China, in general, is becoming increasingly unhappy,"says Sun Yunxiao, deputy head of the Center.

Every two out of three primary school students in Beijing don't get 10 hours of sleep, as required by the Ministry of Education, according to a blue paper released by the Beijing Academy of Social Science in March. One third of them also said they did not have enough sports time.

"Kids today have much more stressful childhood, compared with my generation," says Liu Jinghua. He recalls his childhood playing with other boys in the hutong, small alleys where Beijing residents used to live.

"But today, kids live in tall buildings, with very few playmates. Other kids are busy taking after-school classes, they don't have time to play with you," he said.

"Most Chinese parents deem that high academic credentials promise greater job opportunities. Therefore the competition for prestigious universities was brought forward from high school to middle school, primary school, and even kindergarten," Sun says.

The core of education, he points out, "is not to pass on knowledge, but to develop a healthy character. The heavy workload on children is the result of high expectations from parents, fierce employment competition and wrong concept of education."

How the parents understand education is vital.

Sun noticed that quite a few parents have started to pay more attention to their children's psychological health and get them involved more in sports or social events.

"Our daughter does complain about having too many classes, but so little time to play. Not until she grows up and gets a good job would she understand that our painstaking endeavors are for her best," says Liu Jinghua.

To Liu Zifan, it's acceptable to have classes on weekends. What she needs is some playtime.

"I wish there would be at least one day I can relax and play. I want to watch cartoons online or on television," she says.

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