Today, approximately 1.82 million primary and secondary school students in Shanghai will welcome their first day of the new school year. For the 2025 academic year, the city has newly opened 34 primary and secondary schools (including newly added educational stages), consisting of 7 primary schools, 4 junior high schools, 6 regular high schools, 2 combined junior-senior high schools, and 15一贯制 schools (integrated schools covering multiple stages); nearly 13,000 new student placements have been added citywide, with the increase concentrated mainly in areas experiencing population growth such as the five new towns.
While increasing the supply of student placements, Shanghai continues to improve the modernization of primary and secondary school campuses. The city has revised and implemented its “Construction Standards for Regular Primary and Secondary Schools,”持续推进 the “New Five Standards” for compulsory education, and fully advanced the practical public welfare project of “installing air conditioning in as many regular classrooms of primary and secondary schools as possible.”
Regarding the “Urban and Rural School Hand-in-Hand Advancement Plan,” Shanghai launched a new round of the plan in 2025, covering nearly 200 relatively weaker schools in suburban areas. The initiative strengthens the participation of high-quality urban resources in supporting and assisting suburban schools, optimizes paired cooperation between institutions, enables schools to transition from “blood transfusion” to “blood generation,” promotes sustainable development in suburban schools, and further advances high-quality balance “between regions.”
Building on the significant improvement in the quality of education at over 120 public junior high schools in the first round of the Strengthening Public Junior High Schools Project, Shanghai is vigorously implementing a second round. This focuses on a new batch of 79 public junior high schools, using measures such as guidance from high-quality schools, introduction of renowned principals and teachers, and extended stays by teaching researchers to further stimulate school vitality and teaching potential. Among these, 18 schools have also become citywide model schools for the comprehensive trial of digital teaching transformation, skillfully using resources to address weaknesses, leveraging digital intelligence technology to reform teaching methods, continuously strengthening the “middle section,” and promoting high-quality balance “between educational stages.”
Shanghai is actively responding to trends in school-age population changes. While dynamically assessing the supply and demand balance of basic education resources, the city is exploring pilot reforms in small-class teaching, fully leveraging the educational advantages of small-class teaching in “teaching according to aptitude,” better respecting student learning patterns, and meeting individualized development needs.
The city has established a “Negative List for Standardizing Primary and Secondary School Operations and Optimizing the Basic Education Ecosystem,” strictly implementing the Ministry of Education’s special rectification work on campus meals, teaching aids, and school uniforms. It has released the “Guide for Designing and Implementing High-Quality School-Based Assignment Systems,” listing ten “negative list” items for assignment management, and promoting the implementation of a “no written assignment day” system in schools. After-school services have been designated as a citywide “People’s Heart Project,” and the “Compulsory Education After-School Service Work Guide” has been issued. An online “Quality Education Resource Platform” for after-school services has been built, offering over 2,000 high-quality courses, making “post-class education” and “post-class value addition” the new norm.
