"On April 1, it started on time at 10 a.m.! 58 courses and 21 class locations started simultaneously. On March 30, a tweet from the official account released by the Jinan Municipal Library about the registration notice of the 2024 "Spring Class" of Jinan "YEAH Returning" Citizen Night School set off a wave of discussion. The richer choice of courses and the more convenient arrangement of teaching points have made many members of the public overjoyed and eager to participate. On the first day of registration, more than 140,000 people competed online for 2,100 night school places, and the most popular courses were sold out within 30 seconds, which was no less popular than "concert ticket grabbing".
In fact, evening school is not new, as a form of social education that prevailed in the 20th century, it carries the common memories of several generations. With the popularization of higher education and the Internet, evening classes are rarely in the public eye. It was not until last year that the Shanghai Citizens' Night School, which had been in operation for seven years, suddenly became popular, and this "night school spirit" became "popular" again with a new attitude and swept the whole country. In a short period of time, the new lifestyle of working during the day and learning art at night has become a hot topic for many people.
"After the night school in Shanghai became popular, we also saw the demand of young people for public cultural services, and it happened that the library had accumulated a lot of social resources in the early stage. Li Dehu, director of the cultural activities department of Jinan Library, said frankly. With this "east wind", in December 2023, the Jitu "YEAH Return" Citizen Night School officially opened. On the day of the opening of the registration portal, more than 19,000 people competed online for 270 student places at the same time, which caused quite a stir at the time. Where there is demand, there is a market, and it is not surprising that the "spring class" of the citizens' night school that has returned this time can have such a high degree of attention. In addition to the former students who tasted the "sweetness" of the citizen night school last year, with the expansion and upgrading of the "spring class", more and more "prospective freshmen" have also begun to be eager to try.
Looking at it from another angle, although the public's pursuit of night schools has brought a lot of enthusiasm and dividends, the wind is fleeting and the popularity is easy to disperse. In the final analysis, night school is about "learning", and what you learn is particularly important. With the experience of the first phase of running a school, in order to better meet the needs of the public, Jinan Library issued a social cooperation recruitment order for the whole city in the early stage of the preparation of the "Spring Class", and collected more high-quality teaching resources for students through assessment and selection, reducing the cost of trial and error. In addition, the Municipal Library also accurately meets the needs of the public through channels such as questionnaires and student feedback. Interview skills, carpentry, costume makeup, illustration, tie-dye, official writing, ...... 58 courses selected in the "Spring Class" are diverse, covering all walks of life, so as to make this nighttime cultural feast more "appetizing" for the public.
It is worth noting that in addition to a rich selection of courses, the "spring class" of the citizens' night school also takes into account the needs of more citizens in the selection of the location of the class. The 21 class locations are more scattered, including not only public cultural service places such as the library and Quancheng study, but also new teaching scenes in multiple industries such as CCPARK Creative Port, IKEA, Shandong Cultural Tourism and Shuncheng Sports. It can be said that this night school wind not only blew to Jinan, but also directly to the "doorstep" of Jinan people.
It can be seen that under the new situation and new concept, night school is gradually incorporated into the public cultural service system, but the extension of public cultural service should not stop at night school. In recent years, Jinan has also been exploring new ways for public cultural services to be more suitable for the masses. The mass drama demonstration tour has entered the grassroots level, and the Quancheng study room is all over the city, and cultural workers have sunk to the front line to empower rural revitalization...... Public cultural services are being embedded in different forms around the masses. Jinan's exploration of night schools is particularly valuable, and how to better care for this "night school fever" and explore a more diversified extension form of public cultural services as a revelation is also worth looking forward to.
Curator: Zhang Weibo
Reporter: Song Jiayi
Producer: Ministry of Culture and Tourism