A SPECIAL plan for increasing the number of high school seats in the city will be drawn up before the end of this year to address the city’s chronic shortage of public senior middle schools, the Nanfang Daily reported.

Parents have complained that fewer than half of junior middle school graduates are admitted to public high schools.

Upon the release of student scores on the gaokao — the national college entrance examination — last week, complaints have flared up that getting admitted to a Shenzhen public high school is more difficult than taking gaokao.

This issue however was already noted by political advisers and lawmakers during the city’s “two sessions” — annual meetings of the city’s legislature and political advisory body — this year. At least 23 deputies to the Municipal People’s Congress, including Cui Xuehong and Chen Jinhua, have submitted a proposal calling for more high school seats.

According to Cui, due to the two-child policy and education reforms that would allow children of migrant workers in Shenzhen to enter senior high schools and sit college entrance exams locally, Shenzhen will see more children ready for K12 education than ever before. As a result, the pressure over school seats will only become greater for junior and senior high schools.

Chen added that most of the city’s education budget has been spent on university construction rather than on the expansion of senior high schools.

Regarding this, the education bureau admitted that new school seats have mainly been added to primary and junior schools in recent years.

A shortage of high school seats will become even more obvious in the coming years, so it is necessary to expand high school seats, the bureau said.

At present, the Shenzhen Middle School Nigang Campus and the No.12 Senior High School of Shenzhen are under construction. An extension project of Guanlan Middle School is currently seeking a location, and the design for the No.13 Senior High School is under way, while the locations of the No.14 and No.15 senior high schools have been confirmed, according to the bureau.

However, the bureau said that some difficulties remain. For example, selecting sites for high school campuses is challenging. Some land lots that had been planned for construction demanded changes to the government’s planning. This requires more time and formalities, resulting in delays in construction.

The new plan will offer suggestions to district governments and relevant departments to promote the building of new senior high schools based on current situations and future trends, the report said.

(Jiang Wenyi)