"Only allowed to stay in the classroom," "not even time to go to the toilet"... The disappearing ten-minute break keeps trending, becoming a hot topic of discussion. Over the past two years, relevant departments have repeatedly advocated free activities for students during breaks, but the ten-minute break is still hard to guarantee. Recently, the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily, in collaboration with wenjuan.com, conducted a survey of 1,502 parents. The results show that 56.4% of the interviewed parents feel that their children's games, socializing, sports and other activities during the ten-minute break are restricted. To ensure normal activities for students during the ten-minute break, 62.5% of the interviewed parents suggest continuously enriching the forms of break-time sports activities and commending schools' "featured break" activities, and 60.4% of the interviewed parents suggest incorporating break activities into schools' "double reduction" goals and educational teaching assessments.

In the survey, 55.5% of the respondents are parents of primary school students, 33.0% are parents of junior high school students, and 11.5% are parents of senior high school students.

56.4% of the interviewed parents feel that their children's games, socializing, sports and other activities during the ten-minute break are restricted

Peng Yu, born in the 1990s, has a daughter who started first grade this year. "There are especially many children in this cohort, and it's unsafe for them to move around in the corridors during breaks. My daughter is afraid that other children running around will bump into her, so during the first month she hardly moved around during breaks. It got a bit better after she became familiar with the campus environment, but breaks are still dominated by quiet activities."

"Our child quite likes playing basketball. When he comes home, he tells us about going out to play basketball during breaks, or about interesting things that happened among classmates." Lv Hong, a parent of a middle school student in Beijing, feels that her child's activities during the ten-minute break are guaranteed.

In the survey, 56.4% of the interviewed parents feel that their children's games, socializing, sports and other activities during the ten-minute break are restricted, 36.4% of the parents feel they are not restricted, and 7.3% of the parents do not know.

Wang Jie, born in the 1980s in Beijing, feels that children today have very few break activities. Recalling her own primary school life, she has a deep impression of break activities: "Almost no classmates stayed in the classroom. If a classmate didn't go out to play, the teacher would ask why. Outside the classroom was a large courtyard. During short breaks we played simple games, and during long breaks we played more complex games, such as classmates forming groups to jump rubber bands."

Shi Longwei, a professor at the Faculty of Education of Southwest University, believes that in recent years the restriction of ten-minute break activities in primary and secondary schools is first due to safety concerns. Schools may worry that students will get injured from vigorous activity in a short time, especially when the school has many people and limited space; to avoid accidents, they may restrict activities. Second, in terms of teaching management, some schools may regard breaks as supplementary teaching time, for example for reading or previewing, and therefore restrict sports activities or games. In addition, during special periods, such as flu season, reducing close contact among students can lower the risk of infectious disease transmission, so schools may restrict students' activities.

The Provisions on the Protection of Minors in Schools, promulgated by the Ministry of Education and effective since September 1, 2021, clearly stipulate: "No unnecessary restrictions shall be placed on students' freedom of speech and action, such as legitimate communication, games, and activities outside the classroom during breaks and other non-teaching time." But in the past two years, students' ten-minute breaks are still hard to guarantee. In this regard, 61.9% of the interviewed parents believe the reason is that parents want their children to be absolutely safe at school, which has given rise to schools' management model of "focusing on avoiding incidents"; 48.8% of the interviewed parents attribute it to an insufficient teacher-student ratio, making it difficult for teachers to fully attend to student safety; 40.9% of the interviewed parents point out that schools have limited activity space and hidden safety hazards; 39.5% of the interviewed parents believe it is related to teachers racing against time to "grab" time, with breaks squeezed by the two classes before and after; and 34.2% of the interviewed parents point out that the number of students at school has increased while the internal campus design has not kept up.

Peng Yu believes that schools now have many students, and teaching buildings have three or four floors. Students simply do not have time to get to the playground during the ten-minute break, and moving around in the corridors is not only restricted but also unsafe.

Liu Yitong, a Chinese language teacher at a junior high school in Liaoning Province, says that the main reason break activities for junior and senior high school students are restricted is academic pressure. "If students don't understand something in class, they chase the teacher to ask after class, or discuss it with classmates, or want to use the fragmented time during breaks to study. In addition, teachers may also have this mindset, feeling that every extra minute a student can study counts, and every extra point they can improve counts."

"When we were young, there were many things to play with. Today's children's entertainment is playing on mobile phones. When they don't have electronic products at school, they don't know what to play." Peng Yu believes this is also a reason.

62.5% of the interviewed parents suggest enriching the forms of break-time sports activities and commending schools' "featured break" activities

"Some children, due to restricted break activities, can even only have 'toilet socializing.' This situation definitely needs to be improved." Wang Jie hopes that families and schools will work together to ensure normal activities for children during breaks.

To ensure normal activities for students during the ten-minute break, 62.5% of the interviewed parents suggest continuously enriching the forms of break-time sports activities and commending schools' "featured break" activities; 60.4% of the interviewed parents suggest incorporating break activities into schools' "double reduction" goals and educational teaching assessments; 56.6% of the interviewed parents suggest urging schools to value the role of the ten-minute break and improve operating mechanisms; 49.9% of the interviewed parents suggest that families and schools focus on cultivating children's awareness of rules and behavioral habits; 35.2% of the interviewed parents suggest issuing special policies and regulations to provide institutional norms and accountability standards; and 21.8% of the interviewed parents suggest setting up dedicated teaching staff responsible for student safety matters.

Liu Yitong says that teachers should change their mindset and reasonably arrange teaching progress, and should not drag on class to squeeze out students' break time. Second, students can be allowed to do some simple exercises during breaks to train body coordination.

"From the parents' perspective, we hope schools will continuously enrich the forms of break activities, or appropriately increase break time, for example by setting up a 30-40 minute long break." Lv Hong says that a long break helps children participate deeply in a certain activity, thereby cultivating related interests and specialties.

Shi Longwei says that schools should establish a sound supervision system for break activities. For example, teachers can take turns patrolling during breaks to promptly discover and correct unsafe behavior. Activity facilities should be regularly evaluated and maintained to eliminate safety hazards. Break activities should be properly arranged to avoid letting students participate in overly dangerous games or activities, and safety knowledge should be regularly taught to students, including how to avoid injuries and how to respond to emergencies. Teachers can provide targeted guidance according to the characteristics of students of different age groups. For frail and sickly students, teachers and medical staff should pay more attention to ensure their safety. Through these measures, schools can create a safer environment for break activities, allowing students to regain energy during rest time and engage in healthy physical activity.

Among the interviewed parents, 33.7% are from first-tier cities, 40.3% from second-tier cities, 20.9% from third- and fourth-tier cities, 3.4% from townships, and 1.7% from rural areas.