China Bans Exams for Six-Year-Olds as Beijing Retools Education System

Students enter a school after receiving temperature check to sit for the first day of the National College Entrance Examination in Beijing on July 7, 2021. Photo: AFP / Wang Zhao
Students enter a school after receiving temperature check to sit for the first day of the National College Entrance Examination in Beijing on July 7, 2021. Photo: AFP / Wang Zhao
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China Bans Exams for Six-Year-Olds as Beijing Retools Education System

Students enter a school after receiving temperature check to sit for the first day of the National College Entrance Examination in Beijing on July 7, 2021. Photo: AFP / Wang Zhao
Students enter a school after receiving temperature check to sit for the first day of the National College Entrance Examination in Beijing on July 7, 2021. Photo: AFP / Wang Zhao

Beijing on Monday banned written exams for six- and seven-year-olds, as part of sweeping education reforms aimed at relieving pressure on pupils and parents in China's hyper-competitive school system.

China's exam-oriented system previously required students to take exams from first grade onwards, culminating in the feared university entrance exam at age 18 known as the gaokao, where a single score can determine a child's life trajectory.

"Too frequent exams ... which cause students to be overburdened and under huge exam pressure," have been axed by the Ministry of Education, according to new guidelines released Monday.

The ministry said the pressure on pupils from a young age "harms their mental and physical health."

The regulations also limit exams in other years of compulsory education to once a term, with mid-term and mock examinations allowed in junior high school, reported AFP.

The measures are part of wider government reforms of China's education sector, which include a crackdown on cram schools -- seen by parents as a way to inflate their children's educational fortunes.

In late July, China ordered all private tutoring firms to turn non-profit, and barred tutoring agencies from giving lessons in core subjects at weekends and holidays, effectively crippling a $100 billion sector.

The aim is to reduce China's education inequality, where some middle-class parents willingly fork out 100,000 yuan ($15,400) or more per year on private tutoring to get their children into top schools.

Many also snag property in schools' catchment areas, driving up house prices.

"There is no other country that has such a strong tutoring culture (as China)," said Claudia Wang, partner and Asia education lead at Shanghai-based consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

With population growth at its slowest in decades, Chinese authorities lifted a two-child birth limit earlier this year and wish to increase incentives for parents to have more children.

Beijing city authorities last week announced that teachers must rotate schools every six years, to prevent a concentration of top talent at some schools. Education officials on Monday reiterated a ban on schools setting up "priority" classes for gifted students.

The Ministry of Education also banned written homework for first- and second-graders earlier this year, and limited homework for junior high students to no more than 1.5 hours per night.

However, many Chinese parents still regard education as a path to social mobility.

The gaokao is one of the few ways that poor, rural students can access better educational opportunities and job prospects at top universities.



At Florida’s Capybara Cafe, Patrons Hang out with the ‘It’ Animals of the Moment — Furry Rodents

 A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP)
A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP)
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At Florida’s Capybara Cafe, Patrons Hang out with the ‘It’ Animals of the Moment — Furry Rodents

 A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP)
A capybara gets scratches from visitors at the Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Fla., March 14, 2025. (AP)

Animal lovers now have a place to hang out with the "it" animals of the moment — big furry rodents.

In the back of a real estate office building in what is known as America's oldest city, capybaras are crawling into visitors' laps, munching on corn on the cob and hunting for scratches from humans at The Capybara Cafe in St. Augustine, Florida.

"You give them lots of scratches and love," said Stephanie Angel, who opened The Capybara Cafe late last year. "A lot of times they’ll climb on your lap because they’re very used to people, and if you’re really good at giving scratches, they’ll actually fall over. So that’s always our goal to get them so comfortable that they fall over."

Since opening its doors in October in downtown St. Augustine, near the Flagler College campus, hundreds of animal lovers have visited the site to give the capybaras head scratches. Reservations are booked several months in advance by patrons like Leah Macri, who recently visited the northeast Florida location from Orlando with her daughter.

"Their fur kind of feels like straw a bit," Macri said.

After entering a reception area with couches and an open pen of baby chicks, visitors are escorted into a smaller room in groups of a half dozen or so people. Blankets are placed over their laps, and three capybaras are brought into the room. Other animals like a skunk, wallaby and armadillo are also introduced into the room, and they crawl among the humans and into their laps. The cost is $49 per person for a half-hour encounter, and $99 for an hour-long encounter that involves the other animals.

Even though she had come for the capybaras, Macri enjoyed holding the armadillo the most.

"He was the cuddly, like the best. He was just the softest," she said. "He was just very sweet."

The capybara — a semi-aquatic South American relative of the guinea pig — is the latest in a long line of "it" animals to get the star treatment in the United States. During last year's holiday shopping season, shoppers could find capybara slippers, purses, robes and bath bombs. Axolotls, owls, hedgehogs, foxes and sloths also had recent turns in the spotlight.

The web-footed capybaras can grow to more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) long and weigh well north of 100 pounds (45 kilograms).

Several zoos and wildlife parks across the US offer encounters with capybaras, but Angel said none of them provide the intimacy with the animals that visitors get at the Capybara Cafe.

Angel said she plans to open another capybara cafe across the state in St. Petersburg, Florida, soon. The St. Augustine location doesn't sell coffee or hot food, like a cafe implied in its name, but it does sell capybara-themed T-shirts, coffee mugs and stuffed animals.

The cafe was created to financially support the Hastings, Florida-based nonprofit Noah's Ark Sanctuary Inc., an animal refuge, Angel said.

Chris Cooper, who visited the Capybara Cafe with his wife, was surprised at how rough and coarse the capybaras' hair was.

"And I wasn't expecting how affectionate they were," said Cooper, who drove up 157 miles (253 kilometers) from Weeki Wachee to see the critters. "They enjoyed the hands-on rubs."