Affordable daycare centers bring relief to Shanghai parents

Children take part in activities at a daycare center set up in a community on Nanjing Road W. yesterday. — Zhang Suoqing

In a program backed by Shanghai government, a total of 229 daycare centers opened yesterday for children of working parents during summer holiday.

The centers will look after primary school students who would otherwise have been left unattended at home or sent to commercial daycare centers which are costly, said Yuan Yuanfei, deputy director of the Shanghai Youth Committee that runs the program.

Yang said the daycare centers will run from 8am to 4pm on working days. Some of the centers stay open until 6pm for parents who work late.

The monthly fees will not be more than 600 yuan (US$96). It costs at least 3,000 yuan at commercial institutes.

The centers will conduct classes such as singing and dancing, Shanghai dialect, drawing, performance and handicrafts. They will also have outing activities to places like museums.

Each class will have about 30 to 40 students with a teacher and at least five volunteers.

"The center is a wonderful place for children to make friends while learning new skills," said Zhang Jing, the mother of an 8-year-old girl at a center on Nanjing Road W.