Placing a premium on improved education
Qingdao has prioritized improving the basic education of its residents in recent years, including introducing a series of measures to enhance support for constructing a higher-quality learning system.
In recognizing that achieving educational equity is tied to improving basic resources, Qingdao has significantly increased its number of school spaces and optimized the layout of campuses, providing residents with more diversified educational resources. Since 2022, about 197,300 new learning spaces have been added, and the city continues to improve teaching staff to put the concept of "educational equity" into practice.
Qingdao has recruited outstanding professionals for its teaching staff and implemented a five-tier training program involving new teachers, excellent young teachers, backbone teachers, renowned principals and educational experts. Over the past three years, the number of high-quality teachers in the city increased significantly, providing strong support for the improvement of basic education.
Education groups constitute a burgeoning educational management mechanism, and Qingdao has established 235 such groups involving 900 schools. Their goal is to accelerate the sharing of optimal resources to allow more students to access high-quality services. Promotion of the education group mechanism is considered an advanced innovation in terms of resource management.
Qingdao's basic education also focuses on students' comprehensive development beyond studies. A city action plan provides students with diverse paths for growth in literacy, athleticism and artistic cultivation, while laying a more solid foundation for personal development.
In the morning and afternoon, when the bell rings for extended break time, the playground of Middle School of Shibei affiliated with Qingdao University comes alive with students running, rope skipping and taking part in other sports, accompanied by lively music. Since October, Shibei district has been promoting a"2+2+N" sports work model in all primary, junior and senior middle schools. The model is comprised of compulsory physical education classes and two activities — rope skipping and parkour (obstacle course) — along with optional sports.
Li Xin, principal of the Middle School of Shibei, said the breaks in the morning and afternoon were extended to 30 minutes each, with the aim of improving students' fitness levels.
In another breakthrough, according to Tang Chao, director of Qingdao's Laoshan education and sports bureau, the district has focused on new quality productive forces in pioneering "education digitization".
Laoshan district has issued a three-year action plan (2023-25) for the digital transformation of education, upgrading smart educational facilities in 41 schools and providing more than 30,000 students in grades 3-9 with free smart learning devices.
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