(Yicai Global) Sept. 2 -- Chinese children are returning to school for the start of the autumn term and the beginning of a whole new chapter in China’s educational system as huge changes are made to a centuries-old framework to ease the burden on the country’s school kids.

Extra-curricular classes have just been banned and homework has been reduced. And if that wasn’t extraordinary enough, the government has just brought an end to the age-old practice of putting pupils through a grueling set of exams. Schools are no longer allowed to classify pupils by their exam results and to allocate teaching resources differently. Written exams for first and second graders have been banned completely.

However, there were mixed reactions from kids being dropped off at school for the first time, with some delighted to meet new friends and others heartbroken at being separated from their parents.

First-grade students at the Datong Road Primary School in Hefei, eastern Anhui province dance and play fun activities on their first day at school.

First-graders at the Third Affiliated Primary School of Taiyuan Normal University in northern Shanxi province smile as they follow each other onto the school grounds.

A kindergarten student refuses to leave his mother’s side.

A child sobs in his mother’s arms as he is dropped off at the Beibeile nursery in Chongqing, southwestern China.

Editor: Kim Taylor