City opens 34 additional schools as new semester begins

More than 1.8 million primary and secondary school students in Shanghai kicked off the new semester on Monday. The number saw an increase of 13,000 from last year.

To keep pace with the city's development and shifting demographic trends, Shanghai has stepped up efforts to coordinate the allocation of basic education resources. This semester alone, 34 new schools have opened their doors across the city.

One standout is the Xuhui Experimental Primary School Affiliated to Shanghai Soong Ching Ling School. Breaking free from the constraints of traditional classrooms, the brand-new campus features more than 50 flexible, diverse learning spaces. It has also brought on board top experts from various fields to serve as special "deputy principals", including Fan Chunhai, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Wu Minxia, an Olympic diving champion, to support students' all-round development.

Many of the new schools are situated in areas seeing population growth, such as the Five New Cities. Take Shuguang Junior High School in suburban Fengxian District, for example. It's equipped with first-rate facilities: a gymnasium, a small theater, a rooftop sports field, and an intelligent sunlit running track, to name just a few.

Looking ahead, Shanghai is gearing up for the upcoming peak in senior high school enrollments. A construction plan for senior high schools has already been rolled out, aimed at further unlocking existing potential and proactively expanding capacity.