Abstract:

In the past 70 years after the founding of People’s Republic of China, the students’ academic burden alleviation process had experienced four stages, which are the “initial exploration” stage reducing students’ workload for the sake of students’ physical health, the “overcorrection” stage alleviating the burden of intellectual education, the “concept shifting” stage promoting quality-oriented education to relieve the pressure of entering college, and the “radical reform” stage reducing extracurricular burden comprehensively and all-roundly. Reflecting on history, the competition for further studies caused by class transition anxiety is the root cause of students’ over-workload, and the “interest alliance” with exam oriented education as the link is the direct cause of the overload of students. Looking forward to the future, correctly understanding the connotation of students’ workload is the prerequisite for unswervingly promoting the academic burden alleviation; enhancing the scientific formulation, democratic advancement, and return of benefits of academic burden alleviation policy is the key to effectively reduce students’ workload; and adhering to “people-oriented” and diversified new concept of educational equity is a feasible way to truly reduce students’ workload..

Key words: student workload, academic burden alleviation, educational policy, sociology of education