Aisin Gioro Dezhen (right), a lawmaker from the Pudong New Area, reports to Shanghai Party chief Han Zheng yesterday on a cleanup campaign which has dredged 14 polluted waterways and demolished 35 polluting factories. — Dong Jun

Educational institutes for children must be “regulated and purified,” Shanghai’s Party chief Han Zheng told local lawmakers yesterday.

As well as the legal and authorized institutes that have been appearing in the city in greater numbers, there were misleading and even illegal ones, Han said during a group discussion at the annual session of the Shanghai People’s Congress.

“We will disappoint the citizens and our children if the government failed to regulate and purify the education training market,” Han said.

Many parents are pushing their children to attend such classes in the hope of making them more competitive, according to the Shanghai Education Commission.

“Children are spending more hours doing homework than their parents are working,” Hang said. “The parents are also exhausted because they have to accompany and teach their children.”

He urged officials to listen to the concerns of parents, especially those whose children are preparing for exams.

He also called for better treatment of teachers at local schools.

The city’s education commission has been encouraging parents to stop sending children to academic training classes. Some experts have also criticized the practice as putting unnecessary pressure on children and families.

However, the training institutes are proving popular with local parents who are anxious for their children to get ahead with their studies.