清朝政府於1904年公布《奏定學堂章程》，為中國第一個正式實施的近代學制。由於制度在實施之際，現實與理想之間的鴻溝逐漸浮上檯面，輿論要求改善過長的在學年限，並且取消設置「讀經講經」科要求學生讀經書之規定。對此，清朝在學制實施五年後的1909 年以初等小學堂為中心，針對《奏定小學堂章程》進行第一次的增訂與修改，刪除了完全科部分必修科目，並減少「讀經講經」科的授課時數與內容；另增加了「國文」的授課時數， 目的是為了承擔其他被刪除之必修科目教學。一年後的1910年，又再次修改《奏定小學堂章程》，簡化初等小學堂授課內容，並修訂高等小學堂授課內容。透過這兩次增訂與修改，除了簡化並加強課程內容的實用性之外，也試圖透過刪減科目與課程解決師資不足的問題。

In 1904, the Qing government issued The Constitution of Imperial Schools (zou ding xue tang zang cheng), which effectively set up China's first modern educational system. Soon afterwards, however, it became clear that the new system had fallen short of expectations, and there were calls from the public for the government to reduce the excessively long study hours and the amount of time that students were required to devote to the study of the traditional Confucian classics. Thus in 1909 a revised system was put in place. In primary schools (初等小學堂), students were now required to spend less time on Confucian texts. To make up for the lack of exposure to traditional Chinese texts, students were required to spend more hours studying the Chinese language. Further adjustments were made in 1910. The curriculum of both primary schools and secondary schools was further simplified. In addition, courses of a more practical nature were introduced. The government hoped that by reducing the number of subjects students were required to study, it would be able to solve the problem of a shortage of qualified teachers.