Until recently, elementary and high school students across China faced regular exams organized by local and regional educational authorities. These exams were conducted with the aim of measuring and improving student success, but with districts vying against one another and schools' reputations on the line, undue pressure was inevitably handed down to classroom teachers and students.

In December 2025, as part of larger efforts to reduce unproductive burdens on students and transition to a more well-rounded education system, the Ministry of Education placed a total ban on giving local and inter-school exams to all grades at primary schools and non-graduating grades at junior and senior high schools.

The public's feelings about this exam ban are mixed. Supporters agree canceling these exams will help reduce academic burden, correct the practice of "teaching for the test" and promote education's return to its fundamental purpose of nurturing students and fostering the holistic development of young people. However, opponents say horizontal comparison is an important tool for measuring student success.

Li Qing(Jinan Daily): We need to develop a rational understanding of the ban. Its aim is to eliminate the "score-chasing competition" driven by rankings, rather than abolishing exams entirely. Overemphasizing horizontal comparisons and rankings not only places a heavy physical and mental burden on students but also tends to push teaching into "score obsession." It is not a blanket ban, but rather an encouragement for individual schools to optimize their evaluation methods. Schools need to focus on students' core abilities such as analytical thinking and problem-solving, and ensure that every student's progress is measured across the whole semester.

Breaking free from the score-centric mindset is difficult and requires steady, continuous policy implementation. The authorities should also take care to cut off the potential for profit in organizing outside-school academic exams and competitions. Parents should also abandon their obsession with scores, and view their children's difference from other students rationally. Schools, teachers, parents and society at large should pay attention to all-round student development, including physical and mental health, values, cultural literacy and practical skills.

Jiang Jingjing (Thecover.cn): Schools can still organize exams internally. In theory, this does not prevent them from assessing teaching quality. In fact, since the transition from primary to junior high school does not involve selective exams, inter-school comparison is unnecessary. What parents are actually concerned about is the secondary school stage.

Many parents of students in grades seven, eight, 10 and 11 (the non-graduating years of junior and senior high schools) place importance on the district-wide exams simply to calculate their children's rankings and gain early insight into their academic standing. However, upon closer reflection, it becomes clear that this frequent act of "positioning" holds little real significance. Regardless of whether a student performs well or not on these exams, they cannot stop working hard until the zhongkao (the senior high school entrance exam) or the gaokao (the university entrance exam). So why always measure up against others? Top students may indeed accumulate a sense of superiority through these repeated exams, but average students feel nothing of the sort.

Some parents argue that without these regular exams, it's hard to intuitively know a child's academic standing within the region, leaving them feeling uncertain. In reality, if parents even pay a little attention to their children's coursework, it's easy to gauge how well they are learning. Many parents, however, tend to be inattentive to their children's studies on a regular basis and rely solely on exam scores and rankings to assess their progress.

High-school students will inevitably be faced with exams during their graduating years. Why, then, should they immerse themselves so deeply in such pressures during the earlier grades? BR

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson 

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