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After-school woes plague working parents
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What to do with children after school is a problem for many working parents. Grandparents can help a little, so can free after-school class for little ones. But that’s not enough.
One month ago when Helen Liu learned there would be free after-school classes until 5pm at her son’s primary school, she immediately enrolled 10-year-old Mike Lu.
“But it didn’t turn out to be very effective, especially in homework,” says Liu, a 38-year-old accountant. “I understand that one teacher alone cannot deal with all the students.”
The class is mixed-age.
She and her husband, a marketing manager, usually get home after 7pm. “At that time, helping with Mike’s homework is a disaster,” Liu says.
After-school classes — some are more like baby-sitting — at primary schools have offered some convenience to working parents who pick up their children later. But parents who work later still have trouble making arrangements and find the classes don’t help enough with homework.
Public primary schools usually end at 3:30pm on Mondays through Thursdays and at 2:30pm on Fridays. The Shanghai Education Commission says the free supervision will be in effect in all primary schools within a year.
Christine Cai, who has a son in primary school, says only five students at his school have applied for the free after-school session.
“Students in after-school classes don’t know each other well and the teacher hardly has time or energy to help effectively with homework,” Cai says.
She found a different way. A stay-at-home mother in her son’s class provides pickup from school and homework help at her home. Cai’s son and three other children in the same class usually stay until 6pm when their parents pick them up. It costs Cai 2,000 yuan (US$326) a month.
“The mother is familiar with the curriculum, she downloads the latest learning materials and prepares snacks,” Cai says. “My son receives better mentoring and care there.”
Some parents complain that most after-school classes at the primary school end too early, and they still don’t get off work at 5pm.
“We hope the classes can be extended, otherwise they don’t really solve the problem, especially for non-local families,” says “new Shanghainese” Max Xue, an IT professional with a 9-year-old daughter.
Unlike local families in which grandparents may collect children, Xue and his wife must work long hours to support the family. They are from Shandong Province.
They used to rely on their ayi to collect their child after school and now they take the girl to a privately run after-school class in the neighborhood. That costs around 1,500 a month.
Since after-school classes are still in a trial period for many public primary schools, some observers expect the system will become more flexible and personalized as it matures.
Sheng Pei, headmaster of the Hongkou District No. 3 Central Primary School, says the school has provided after-school classes for years. Around 90 percent of the students in each class choose to remain until 5pm.
Online chatting tools connect parents and school officials. All students have after-school insurance coverage. If parents work late, they can contact teachers and arrangements are made to collect the child later.
“The main purpose of the service is to provide a safe place where students can wait until their parents finish work,” Sheng says. “These are not tutorials. There should be no extra lessons and homework. It’s a place where students can develop and show their talents.”
He encourages students themselves to organize art, science and sports activities on their own after school. In the future, he wants to organize museum trips and community service.
According to Chen Zaiyue, director of the Hongkou District Minors Protection Office, the service gets financial support from the city education commission. That should solve problems for a large number of working parents, but it will take time to mature.
“After-school service at public primary schools is more professional and safer than private ones,” Chen says.
However, rapid popularization of after-school service at public primary schools puts considerable pressure on privately run services.
Rose Wu, a stay-at-home mother in her 40s, says that she now must postpone plans to expand with an after-school service center in suburban Fengxian District.
“I have to think it over, reposition the business and turn it into a tutorial or English class,” she says.
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