For the last 34 years, a primary school in Shenyang has maintained a policy not giving homework to its students. The free time has helped reduce the burden on students, who have continued to achieve great academic performance, reports banyuetan.org.

The Fifth Primary School of Shenyang Railway, in north China's Liaoning Province, is famous for its relaxed atmosphere. The school, which was established in 1958, introduced its no homework policy in 1984 in a pilot scheme for one class. But it has since been introduced across the campus.

Zhang Xiujin, the former head of the school, said "There are only teachers who don't know how to teach, there are no children who can't be taught. There is not a lot of knowledge that needs to be learned during the primary school period, so the extra workload is unnecessary."

With no homework to keep them busy at the end of the day, students can join optional courses or participate some of the school's 60 different clubs, as well as 20 compulsory courses covering topics including smart robots, music, and the arts.

A parent of one of the children at the school said, "This school prefers to encourage students to read books and news instead of giving them homework, which helps develop a good learning habit."

Wang Hongliang graduated from the school in 2013. He says the benefits of allowing students to think more and develop their individual interests are clear after they enter high school. "My life preparing for college entrance examination is full of stress, but the experience of studying at this primary school really helped me a lot."

In his government work report at the opening of this year's "Two Sessions," Premier Li Keqiang announced that the government will "give attention to addressing the problem of heavy extracurricular burdens on primary and secondary school students".

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