No more double-dipping in school choice

Education authorities released plans on Thursday to enforce a new school recruitment policy that requires public and private primary schools to admit students at the same time.

Parents must make a choice between public and private schools when applications begin on April 26 with a unified digital system containing students’ basic information collected by kindergartens.

To help parents know better about the schools to choose, campus visit activities will be held this month and next month.

Schools can showcase their education philosophy, curriculum and characteristics to parents and students, but are banned from organizing tests or interviews or collecting students’ resumes during the activities.

On May 19 and 20, parents will have to either bring their children and related materials to public schools to verify their eligibility, or take children to attend interviews at private schools.

The change was introduced by the Shanghai Education Commission to deal with the craze for popular private schools. Parents will now need to weigh the risk of losing the opportunity of entering popular public schools with that of private schools.