Zhang Yang

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DEPUTIES to the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress (MPC) were divided into groups based on district for panel discussions at the Civic Center yesterday afternoon. Topics including the shortage of educational resources and teachers’ welfare were highlighted at a panel discussion attended by deputies from Nanshan District.

According to the government work report delivered at the opening ceremony of the MPC session yesterday morning by the mayor of Shenzhen, Chen Rugui, 34 primary and secondary schools were constructed or expanded in the city last year.

Wang Xiyun, a Nanshan deputy, said the district government outsourced the construction projects of three public schools to State-owned enterprises in recent years, which is a practical approach that can be popularized in other districts in a bid to tackle the shortage of educational resources in the city.

Wang Qiang, Party chief of Nanshan District, agreed that the projects outsourced to State-owned enterprises had shorter construction periods and were of good quality. He said such an approach saves resources, as the schools can be put into operation earlier than expected.

Another deputy, Ye Qing, said the government can adopt the idea of a sharing economy to tackle the problem of land shortage when building schools. “For instance, kindergartens can be built on the lower floors of office buildings and schools can share playgrounds with nearby communities,” she said. “When the rate of shared space reaches 10 percent, we will save 5 percent of land.”

After building enough schools, the next thing to do to improve the quality of elementary education is hire good teachers, according to a deputy named Sun Yingtong. Sun urged the government to promote teachers’ welfare by offering more government-subsidized apartments for them, which could help Shenzhen solicit best-in-class teachers from outside the city.