New Oriental(NYSE: EDU) and America-based Scholastic have signed a strategic cooperation agreement recently, announcing that New Oriental’s leveled reading product New Oriental Xiaoshutong(新东方小书童) has officially introduced the <Clifford the Big Red Dog> series to Chinese kids.
New Oriental Xiaoshutong is an online English leveled reading platform co-developed by New Oriental Educational Technology Group and Metametrics, the parent company of Lens Testing. There are more than 2,000 books on the platform, and all of them are from worldwide well-known publishing houses. The platform focuses on providing English leveled reading and learning programs for children from 3 to 12-year-old.
Frank Wong, Asia President of Scholastic, said that since 2006, the company has been conducting regular surveys to figure out changes in children’s reading habits, experiences, and attitudes. “Latest research reflects that 50% of Chinese children read with high-frequency, but 40% of Chinese parents find difficulty in getting suitable reading materials for their children, especially in English reading, over 90% of parents said they need help.”