Four schools in Beijing on March 1 formally established branch campuses in Xiongan New Area, a new economic zone in Hebei province, 100 kilometers southwest of downtown Beijing. The four schools are Beijing Chaoyang Experimental Primary School, Beijing No. 80 High School, Beijing Liuyi Kindergarten and Beijing Zhongguancun No.3 Primary School.
This marks the launch of Beijing's first education assistance program to Xiongan New Area. Beijing plans to spend 10 million yuan (US$1.6 million) annually on supporting education development in Xiongan New Area, which will be used mainly to train teachers.
Campuses to implement integrated management
Last August, the Beijing municipal government and the government of Hebei province signed a strategic cooperation agreement on jointly advancing planning and construction of Xiongan New Area, which includes the plan of four Beijing schools establishing branch campuses in Xiongan. Since then, the two local governments also helped to establish education assistance programs, linking up four pairs of Beijing and Xiongan schools, in order to improve education quality in the new economic zone.
The four schools based in Beijing will send experienced teachers and senior level staff to assist their branch campuses in Xiongan New Area, while the branch campuses will be led by a management team composed of administrators from both the main Beijing campus and the branch campuses. According to the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, the management integration will allow educators from the Beijing schools to share with the branch campuses their advanced concepts, management culture, curriculum resources and teaching experiences.
Sharing quality education resources
Beijing and Xiongan New Area will each set up special funds to support the assistance program, with Beijing committing 10 million yuan annually to the program. The four Beijing schools have also individually formulated plans to incorporate the program.
"The assistance [program] has already begun," said Chen Lihua, principal of Beijing Chaoyang Experimental Primary School. "Teachers from the Xiongan branch campus attended the working conference with us before this semester and they will accept our training once or twice every month. Next month students from our new campus will receive the same textbooks we use currently. We will also send a team to the new campus to provide training to teachers and assistance to management."
Class size will decrease to 50 or fewer students after the establishment of the Xiongan branch campuses; their facilities will also be improved, such as replacing old desks and chairs. "Our key task is to bring the best of our school to the Xiongan campus, and let the students there enjoy better resources," said Tian Shulin, principal of Beijing No. 80 High School.
Building three new "Beijing standard" schools in Xiongan
Beijing also launched a three-year plan on educational assistance to Xiongan on Thursday and the city will continue to carry out a number of key educational cooperation projects this year. This includes exchanges between school administrators from three counties in Xiongan and various district education officials in Beijing. The project will also send 30 primary and high school principals from Xiongan New Area to train at quality Beijing primary and high schools, offer two training programs in Beijing to outstanding primary and high school teachers from Xiongan, and support distinguished teachers from Beijing to set up four workshops in Xiongan.
According to Liu Yuhui, director of Beijing Municipal Education Commission, a new kindergarten, a new primary school and a new high school will be constructed in Xiongan New Area, and each will be built to the same standard as those in Beijing. The site for the three new campuses are currently being selected.