Are you feeling sleepy in class? I remember that I often got up at eight when I was young. And we didn't do homework. But now, everything has changed.
For 12-year-old Liu Xiangjian, the most difficult thing in life is getting up at 5:50 a.m. every school day. "I don't want to get up so early, but I am afraid of being late, " the sixth-grade Beijing primary school student said. "I want more sleep. "
Liu has breakfast at 6:15 a.m., and after a 30-minute bus ride, he arrives at 7 a.m. Like most of his 28 classmates, Liu arrives at school a full hour before lessons start at 8 a.m.
In 2016, a survey of 2,500 school children in six cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, found that about 77% of the students were short of sleep. In another recent survey made by the China Daily website, almost 70% of the 1,130 people said that they agreed with cutting school hours, while 22% disagreed and 10% had no comment (评论).
Although their children spend long hours at school, many parents arrange (安排) for them to take more studies.
Liu's mother, Wang Qunyu, who teaches at a high school in Beijing, thinks her son is still not doing enough to win a place at a good quality high school. "Of course I want my son to have more sleep, more exercise and more fun, " she said, "but the common saying is that if you give your child a happy childhood in China, you will give him a failed future. "
Something must be done to change people's traditional thought that a college diploma (毕业证) is a ticket to a good job.
