Adult content in supplementary textbook riles parents

A private international school in Shanghai has stirred controversy among parents for using an English supplementary textbook that contains adult content.

According to a report by Caixin.com on Jan 23, parents of the second grade junior middle students from SMIC Private School (Shanghai) in Pudong New Area have complained about the use of a new supplementary textbook which has an English-language joke named Mommy's Washcloth. Parents said that the joke has strong sexual implications and references private parts and extramarital affairs.

Founded in 2001 by Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation, the school has more than 2,900 students from 25 different countries and regions.

Xiong Bingqi, deputy dean of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, was quoted by Caixin as saying that the education department should be blamed if the school was merely adhering to the authority's list of approved reading materials. However, if the textbook was chosen by the school, both the publisher and the school should share the blame.

Apparently, it's the fault of the publisher and school in this incident, he added.

Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, was quoted as saying that having more extracurricular books in the market could help prevent such problems.

"If there are more professional institutions publishing such materials, then the school can compare and choose based on professional reviews, and the chances of such problems happening will be greatly reduced."