THE Qingdao No. 39 Middle School will recruit for its “Ocean Class” in September. The experimental class will specialize in marine economy education.

    The school was recently listed as the first pilot education base for the country’s marine economy.

    The class will recruit 40 volunteer students.

    Each student will have an extra tutor from the Ocean University of China as well as his or her regular teacher at school.

    The students will have a creative curriculum tailor-made for marine economy education and their main coursework will be research.

    Their performances will be evaluated based on their achievements in subject research instead of exams.

    “It is significant to add ocean-related education such as ocean knowledge and ocean environmental protection to courses in normal middle schools and primary schools,” said Gai Guangsheng, director of the publicity and education center of the State Ocean Administration.

    Gai said the education is good for developing an ocean economy in the future.

    A number of schools in Qingdao have launched creative ocean courses.

    (Tina Chen, Liu Miao)