Growing up as a student in present-day China can be a protracted ordeal except for those who have an addiction to homework.

From kindergarten on, every kid has to wage an unrelenting battle against an overwhelming flow of homework and exams.

The poor kids complain. So do their parents. As do the education authorities. Our school-age children are overburdened. They should not be deprived of the joy of childhood: There seems to be a consensus that something has to be done to lighten schoolbags.

But to the Jiangsu education authorities' surprise, their five-month old initiative to reduce workload for school children has run into strenuous opposition from parents. So much so that they have had to publish an open letter to students' parents to solicit support.

All parents sympathetic to their kids' plight should have applauded. Yet we see the very contrary - they have been railing against it. They would rather have everything done the old way, so that their children retain competitiveness in the endless tests awaiting them. Some parents have even appealed to the authorities to allow schools to continue offering extra-curricular courses so that their children can benefit.

The parents' ambivalence again demonstrates the more-than-obvious truth that the so-called "all-round education" is a concept easier said than done. Although everybody hates test-oriented education, and everybody has "all-round education" on his or her lips, when it comes to implementation, few parents can afford the risk of their children lagging behind.

And they have good reasons to be afraid. In spite of all the changes, the country's talent screening regime remains the same. You have to do well in the national college entrance examinations to qualify for higher education. To enroll at one's dream college, one has to first present top scores. And the path toward higher scores has hardly changed for decades. In most cases, there is a positive correlation between one's scores and the time and energy he or she invested. And the more guidance one gets from experienced instructors, the more likely one scores higher in exams.

So let us not blame the parents or the Jiangsu education authorities. But what is happening in Jiangsu is a fresh reminder that reform in basic education must be conducted with the context in mind. Many smart ideas end up aborted exactly because they ignore the due context.

(China Daily 11/10/2009 page8)