In October 2023, the Jiefang Daily reported that in some primary schools, pupils could not leave the classroom during the ten-minute break, except to use the toilet or fetch water. Other schools allowed walking in the corridor, but not going down the stairs or out to the playground. The paper wrote that the schools’ biggest worry was student safety, because schools often bore unlimited responsibility.
The Ministry of Education said it would guide schools to “give out-of-class time back to the children.”