Social donations

Social donations from across China exceeded 90 billion yuan (US$13.1 billion) in 2018, an official of the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Monday.

China now has more than 7,500 registered charity organizations, with net assets totaling about 160 billion yuan, according to Jia Xiaojiu, head of the ministry’s department for philanthropy and social work. There are currently 204 charitable trust projects in China, with contracts involving about 2.25 billion yuan.

2nd bachelor’s degrees

The country’s universities and colleges will stop enrolling college graduates for a second bachelor’s degree from July, according to a guideline issued by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council.

The program to enroll graduates for a second bachelor’s degree was set up as a complement to China’s postgraduate programs to cultivate high-caliber* professionals. However, along with the rapid development of China’s postgraduate education, the second bachelor’s degree program has become outdated, said the committee.

Expat teacher arrested

A male foreign teacher suspected of molesting a young girl in a kindergarten in January in Qingdao, Shandong Province, has been arrested, according to the local procuratorate*.

The district procuratorate of Shinan in Qingdao approved the arrest of the teacher after the local public security department conducted an investigation, according to a report from CCTV on Friday. Surveillance footage showed the teacher entering a classroom and putting his hands into the girl’s quilt during naptime for about one minute as the Chinese caretaker left for the bathroom at 2 p.m. on January 25, according to an announcement by the Beijing RYB Qingdao Vanke City Kindergarten on Thursday.

More private schools

Private schools accounted for 35.36 percent of China’s total in 2018, the latest official figures showed.

China’s private schools totaled 183,500, registering an increase of 5,815 from the previous year, according to a statistical report on China’s education development in 2018 issued by the Ministry of Education. The total enrollment of the country’s private schools was 53.78 million in 2018, up 5 percent from 2017.(SD-Agencies)