OVER the past few months, Hu Yingsen, a 6-year-old child in Bao’an District, has been attending free plasticine classes in the activity room of Langxin Community in Shiyan Subdistrict with his mother.

It is estimated that over 3,000 children and teenagers from Bao’an District will enjoy the free interest classes after school throughout the year.

In January, the district’s Communist Youth League and teenager service center initiated a year-round campaign organizing free classes on hobbies including chess, dance, calligraphy, sports, and robot-making.

“I can make many animals like cats, geese and ducks with plasticine now,” Hu told the Bao’an Daily. The kid has been learning the handicraft under the guidance of a teacher named Guo Yumei.

“He concentrates his attention on making all kinds of things with plasticine during the classes, and he hardly behaves so well at other times,” said Hu’s mother, Chen Zexia. The mother said that although her kid only takes one class per week, she has noticed obvious changes in him, as he seems more patient than before.

According to a staffer at the district’s teenager service center, the center has been offering free hobby classes for a long time, but could hardly manage to serve the teenagers from the communities in all of the subdistricts, so now the classes are also being organized in other communities.

Currently, there are 53 interest classes in 40 communities in the 10 subdistricts in Bao’an. Each week, the children attend the classes they signed up for in the communities near their homes.

The district’s Communist Youth League and the center will continue to open more classes in the coming months. The classes normally commence at 4 p.m., after schools finish each day, but each community has their own flexible schedule.

(Zhang Qian)