Beijing yesterday 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 hypercompetitive school system.
China previously required students to take exams from first grade onward, 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.
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 the education sector, which include a crackdown on cram schools.
In late July, China ordered all private tutoring firms to turn non-profit, and barred tutoring agencies from giving lessons in core subjects on weekends and holidays, effectively crippling the sector.
The aim is to reduce China's education inequality, where some middle-class parents willingly fork out 100,000 yuan (HK$120,400) or more per year on private tutoring to get their children into top schools.
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 1/2 hours per night.
Wong Kwan-yu, the chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, said it is too early to say whether Hong Kong should follow such a practice.
"It is okay for Hong Kong to discuss it, but we do not have to rush and follow suit," he said. "I think we need to take some time to observe how the new system works on the mainland."
But he added that tests and examinations are generally considered tools to push students to work hard in Hong Kong. "If we are to drop written examinations for primary one and two pupils, we will have to find substitutes to replace the exams to track their study progression," Wong said, adding that pupils might lack the drive to study hard if there are no assessments.
He also said the academic burden of Hong Kong students are not as great as their mainland counterparts since parents can take concerns to the schools' management via parent-teacher associations.
