Many primary school students in Shanghai can expect to see their parents rather than their grandparents waiting at school gates to take them home in the new semester as educational institutions start to provide up to two and a half hours of after-class service.

Starting Sept 1, a large number of primary and junior middle schools in the city will begin to allow students to stay on campus doing school assignments, reading, playing sports and participating in other activities till 6 pm.

The move is part of the city education authority's requirements in the new term to alleviate the pressure on families raising children and strengthen the role of schools while regulating out-of-school education institutions.

Such changes are in line with the country's policy of reducing the burdens on primary and junior middle school students from school assignments and out-of-school classes. The policy was published last month.

At Xuhui Experimental Primary School Affiliated with Fudan University, around 80 percent of students have decided to participate in after-class services.

Headmaster Huang Qi said the students will be able to do school assignments in classrooms with teachers on site ready to answer queries, and 50 new books have been placed in each classroom for the children to read.

Students can also sign up for various clubs according to their interests. The school provides 24 subjects, including chess, tennis and shooting, he said.

"A variety of such activities is aimed at helping students cultivate hobbies and facilitate their rounded development," Huang said.

He said third-party professional training institutions will be paid to run some of the sessions, but they will be provided to students for free.

Zhang Yi, principal of Luwan Middle School, said that from Monday to Thursday students will mainly spend the after-class session doing school assignments.

"We may arrange those with excellent academic performance and those who need improvement to be in different groups, and teachers will answer questions accordingly," she said.

On Friday, all the students will take an extended class covering science and technology, arts, sports and literature based on their interests during the after-class service, Zhang said.

"Each student used to take one extended class during regular school time. Now each can sign up for two such classes thanks to the after-class session," she said.

Zhang said the school will collect information from students' parents about when their children finish homework and go to bed every day to regulate the number of school assignments and adjust their quality if necessary.

Primary schools shall not assign written homework to first and second graders. The average time third to fifth graders spend on homework every day should not exceed 60 minutes, with the cap set at 90 minutes for junior middle school students.

The content of exams should not exceed what has been taught in school, and one physical education class is compulsory for all primary school students each day.

"We recruited two new PE teachers and renovated the school's indoor stadium," Huang said.

The prevention and the control of COVID-19 will remain a priority in the new semester. Schools said they will take strict measures to implement environmental disinfection and urge students to maintain good personal protection.