Jiangyan district gets parents involved in education matters

Students attend an art class at Jiangyan Experimental Primary School in Taizhou, Jiangsu province. [Photo/jsenews.com]

Jiangyan district in Taizhou, East China's Jiangsu province has been holding the New Parents School, a program that offers free courses to students and their parents every Saturday, since 2017.

Liu Fugang, founder of the school and director of the district's teacher development center, said the New Parents School is aimed at integrating school education with family education.

The school provides more than 30 kinds of courses related to activities such as art and football to students, as well as family education classes to parents. It has also developed online platforms which offer live-streaming classes and lectures among other learning materials.

The number of teachers in the school has increased from four in the beginning to 200. The faculty also includes 179 psychotherapists and more than 100 social workers.

To date, 59 kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools as well as 39 communities in Jiangyan district have participated in the program that has benefited about 50,000 people. Four rural schools will also join the New Parents School to promote balanced development of education.