Wang Yuanyuan
CLASSES taken during noon breaks outside schools will be regulated by the end of June to ensure the health and safety of students who study, eat and nap during the lunch period, Mayor Xu Zongheng told a panel discussion of lawmakers yesterday.
A regulation governing noon breaks off-campus had been drawn up at the beginning of the year and would take effect in March, Xu said.
According to government plans, all schools supervised at city and district levels and able to build dining halls on campus should start construction by the end of March.
Relevant departments would start checking all off-campus classes managed by individuals and private investors in April and those that failed to meet stipulated standards would be closed before July, Xu said.
“Schools and families should play a major role in taking care of children at noon, but off-campus noon-break classes are also necessary because they can provide the necessary supervision when parents are unavailable.”
Xu’s remarks were in response to a lawmaker, Yang Jianchang, who suggested the government step up supervision of off-campus classes to ensure student safety.
There are about 780,000 primary and middle school students in the city. Of these, 230,000 take noon breaks, according to a report released by the city’s education bureau in January. However, a series of health and safety problems had emerged in recent years because there had been no regulations governing lunch breaks.
Meanwhile, Xu also agreed to another proposal by a legislator, Shen Yongfang, also vice general secretary of the city’s fashion industry association, who called for the government to offer one-stop service for exhibition organizers to obtain approval from different departments.
Under the current system, an exhibition organizer has to go through different departments to complete all procedures. If there was a delay in one department, the whole exhibition could be at stake, Shen said.