Guangzhou builds new schools to meet demand from 2nd children

Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, is actively promoting the construction of new schools and the reconstruction and expansion of existing ones to enlarge enrollment to meet the demands for education from the city's surge of school-age children born after the second-child policy was introduced.

According to the Guangzhou Bureau of Education, the southern metropolis is gearing up to receive more than 300,000 additional students through construction and expansion of schools during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.

Education authorities in the city have forecast a school enrollment tide starting this fall, when many local families' second children reach school age, the bureau said.

The Chinese mainland relaxed its decades-old family planning policy in 2016, allowing all couples to have two children. In August last year it adopted a third-child policy.

The bureau urged the completion of high-quality school construction and expansion projects on schedule.

It is also urging district departments and major schools to do a better job of predicting enrollment demand, it said.

Xiong Bingqi, head of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, urged education departments to make a scientific and accurate forecast of the population of school-age children through investigating both the number of permanent residents and the floating population in an area.

"Departments should make scientific and reasonable overall arrangements for schools and kindergartens and allocate educational resources according to the dynamic data of its population of school-age children," Xiong said.

Huang Huiying, principal of Huixian Primary School in Guangzhou's Panyu district, said the local government has plans to cope with the coming enrollment tide, as Panyu district has completed new primary schools and kindergartens every year since 2019.

In 2019 alone, four new schools, including Huang's school, were completed and began enrollment in Panyu, providing about 3,000 vacancies, Huang said.

"The enrollment tide will not lead to any difficulty for local school-age children to go to school," she said.

According to an investigation of enrollment demand launched in February, Huang forecast her school would witness a 20 percent year-on-year rise in new pupils this year.

"The school has upgraded and updated its teaching facilities, equipment and venues to meet the demands of the growing number of students," she added.

Children can go to primary school when they turn 6.

Education experts have predicted schools in Guangzhou will reach their peak period of enrollment in 2023 and 2024, when local families' second children begin to attend.

Data from Guangzhou education bureau showed the city had 1,531 primary and middle schools, enrolling 1.67 million students in 2020.

Zhao Yujing contributed to this story.