East China's Jiangsu province has achieved significant results in easing the burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring on students, said officials from the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education on Dec 24.

According to Gu Yuehua, deputy director-general of the education department, 96.6 percent of off-campus academic tutoring institutions in Jiangsu have closed down or changed to another field of business, and about 98 percent of students and their parents are satisfied with schools' efforts to ease academic pressure. Both figures are among the highest in China.

The province has issued nearly 30 guidelines at the provincial level to provide policy support for relieving pressure on students since July. A number of work groups have been set up to deal with issues related to class design, homework assignments, examination arrangements, and regulations on off-campus tutoring firms.