The city of Jinhua – in East China's Zhejiang province – is reportedly going to be a test bed for a concept to ease the burden of students weighed down by intolerable levels of academic pressure.

The official website of the Department of Education of Zhejiang Province reported on Aug 5 that Jinhua had recently been designated as a pilot city to launch a campaign aimed at easing excessive homework and off-campus tutoring for students undergoing compulsory education. 

The pilot work plan was drafted centering on the three tasks of "reducing the after-school training of subjects", "rationally utilizing resources inside and outside the school" and "strengthening the supervision of training fees".

To promulgate the program, the Jinhua education authorities will work with industry and commerce and other departments to accelerate the issuance of relevant documents, which are expected to be executed after the fall semester. 

The country's authorities have introduced a set of guidelines on relaxing extracurricular study for students taking compulsory education. Jointly issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, the document bans local authorities from approving any new tutoring institutions for academic course training.

To date, those selected as national pilot cities to carry out these guidelines have been Beijing, Shanghai, Liaoning province's Shenyang, Guangdong province's Guangzhou, Sichuan province's Chengdu, Henan province's Zhengzhou, Shanxi province's Changzhi, Shandong province's Weihai and Jiangsu province's Nantong.