Abstract:

Primary school students’ academic burden alleviation is the key issue to be solved in the field of elementary education. After the reform and opening up, academic burden alleviation policy, from the perspective of government management and supervision, insisted on weakening the selection of students. And the new age as a turning point had shown development characteristics from gradual weakening to limited strengthening of school education and teaching, from indulging to restricting of social forces in running schools, and from guiding parents to become the partner to the subject of academic burden alleviation. According to the two standards of “the effectiveness of reducing workload” and “whether to cause educational stratification”, it is found that the academic burden alleviation policy has the following limitations: first, weakening school education and teaching ignores the class difference of learning burden; second, banning the establishment of key schools (classes) contradicts the traditional view of educational achievement; third, the load reduction function of nearby enrollment policy has class difference; and fourth, measures to govern social forces in running schools are not perfect. In the new era, the academic burden alleviation policy of primary students should set goals of pursuing rational comprehensive development and maintaining moderate learning burdens. Meanwhile it should optimize strategies, including changing the concepts of educational achievement, strengthening the educational responsibilities of schools, carrying out multi school district admission and strengthening the governance of social forces to run schools.

Key words: reform and opening up, primary school student, policy of academic burden alleviation