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 Primary school students in Beijing officially began their winter vacation on Saturday, two weeks earlier than scheduled due to the city’s anti-epidemic efforts. However, how the children should be taken care of is a big question for the dual-earner families. 

Many schools have investigated the needs of parents in advance and will solve the problem of parental supervision through offline hosting or online activities, media reported.

Compared with private day care providers, schools can provide more comprehensive security and epidemic prevention. It should be done in line with the actual situation specific to the needs of each school and each child, which cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach, Chu Chaohui, a research fellow at China’s National Institute of Education Sciences told the Global Times on Saturday.

According to the requirements of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, all school teachers must be on duty until January 29 when the scheduled winter vacation begin. 

Some schools will provide meaningful and interesting activities such as reading classic works, math games, physical exercise and creative arts, so that children can combine work and rest during the childcare period and learn something new.

Liang Miaomiao, who has a fourth-grader son going to school in Tongzhou district, told the Global Times on Saturday that her son’s school has provided day care classes for students with no one to take care of them at home.

A 5-year-old confirmed COVID-19 case in Shunyi district was infected at a family-held daycare class, which triggered public concern regarding the safety of daycare centers.

The anti-epidemic measures at schools will be stricter than those privately run daycare classes. Being in company of familiar teachers and classmates would make young children happier and more relaxed, she said.

As far as Liang knows, one student has applied to attend the care class in her son’s class. Liang asked her parents to come from Northeast China’s Liaoning Province to Beijing for a period to take care of her son.

For students who have grandparents taking care of them, some primary schools provided online activity classes such as drawing, introducing the Winter Olympic Games and physical training.

The problem for the elderly is that they can neither send their children to school nor provide them with care up to desired quality. As a result, the Asia Pacific Experimental School of Beijing Normal University decided to extend its offline hosting to online, so that students at home can turn on the livestreaming platform and participate in activities with their class teachers, Huang Lan, a teacher from the school, told the Beijing news.