The number of formal interviews for kindergarten and primary slots in private schools in Shanghai dropped by half this year due to new city education policies designed to ease the parent frenzy about getting offspring into the best schools.

Education authorities said children sat an estimated 50,000 interviews over the weekend — compared to around 100,000 interviews last year — after authorities limited individual applications to only two schools and banned most schools from accepting applications from students outside their districts.

“The new policy forces parents to be more rational in selecting private schools and reduces our burden of handling applications,” said Chen Yong, deputy head of the Shanghai Foreign Language Middle School.

He said applicants this year dropped to fewer than 800 from 2,000 last year.

The Shanghai Education Commission has ruled that no academic results from “cram schools” should be considered in enrollment procedures for young students.

That hasn’t stopped many parents from enrolling children in intensive, private after-school training sessions.

The Shanghai Foreign Language Primary School, where applicants this year dropped by one-third to 2,170, said it developed an online testing system developed by a third-party contractor to use in vetting applicants objectively.

Many 6-year-olds emerging from interviews — always conducted without parents present — didn’t seem to think the sessions were too bad.

One girl said a teacher asked her to tell the different between an apple and an orange.

At the Yifu Primary School, kindergarten children were asked to make Mother’s Day card and copy Disney cartoons.

“These ‘games’ are redesigned every year,” a member of staff said. “So parents don’t need to bother trying to prepare their children for unknown content.”