A primary school student in Shanghai takes an online class at home on Monday. Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee

1.4 million total students across primary and secondary school grades in Shanghai, officially began their classes online from Monday after the city postponed its school resumption to ensure the safety of students and teachers during the coronavirus outbreak.

Based on the official yearly academic calendar, issued by the Shanghai education commission, students from Grade 1 through Grade 12 will join the classes together.  The online curriculum will include all academic subjects along with morning exercises, and drills aimed at eyesight protection and vision improvement, as well as holding an indoor flag-raising ceremony. 

Also, they can access the live streaming sessions and recorded teaching videos through platforms such as Bilibili and DingTalk, which have officially partnered to facilitate the online classes.

The city performed two mock sessions, each viewed by over 600,000 and 300,000 students and teachers, respectively, covering 44 countries and regions, ahead of its official launch. 

About 9 percent of the viewers were from East China's Zhejiang Province, 5 percent from East China's Jiangsu Province, and 0.85 percent from Central China's Hubei Province, according to the Shanghai education commission.

To ensure all students, including those who couldn't return to Shanghai on time due to the epidemic outbreak, have access to the academic content, the city has made the videos available for free.

Lu Jing, the director of the Shanghai education commission admitted there are visible variations between online and offline teachings, noting that the classroom-oriented teaching can't be replaced by the online module. He urged the parents not to be anxious as the schools will evaluate students' performance at a later stage.

"The teachers online are great but I still miss interacting with my classmates and teachers in the classroom," a fifth-grade Chinese-American student, currently residing in Shanghai, told the Global Times Monday, on conditions of anonymity.