Does Shanghai Daily do April Fools jokes? Because this sounds way too good to be true: the city is hiring education monitors specifically to make sure homework loads for elementary and secondary students aren't excessively high. Moreover, teachers who've received multiple complaints about giving too much homework will be disciplined... and even fired if they don't improve. The reason: the hours upon hours of home study material are ruining kids' mental and physical health and keeping them away from extracurricular activities that could make them more well rounded. Those are all very important problems, but punishing homework givers? That sounds distinctly un-Chinese. more ›

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