Double happiness: China primary school greets 12 sets of twins, places them in same class to meet needs, delighting social media

A primary school in China has welcomed a staggering 12 pairs of twins into its ranks of newly enrolled students, with each pair placed in the same class in a video story that has delighted mainland social media.

The twins are among more than 100 Primary One students who started at the Hubin North Road Primary School in eastern China’s Shandong province on September 1, video news site btime.com reported.

According to the report, five sets of twins are girls while the other pairs are all boys.

Footage of them walking in a line holding hands has delighted mainland social media, with many people impressed by the identical twins.

“Hello, my name is Meng Yunzhe. I am six years old. I like reading books and drawing,” one of the twin boys says in the video.

His younger brother followed him: “Hello, my name is Meng Yunkai. I am six years old. I like climbing, drawing and doing handicrafts.”

The school has placed the twins in the same class to help their teachers get to know their characters and the best teaching methods for them. The school said the arrangement also makes it easier for parents at pickup time.

Gao Rui, the mother of twin girls said she tried to help others easily distinguish the difference between her identical daughters.

“I have prepared their name stickers and affixed them to their dresses, water cups and school bags so other kids in the class and teachers can get to know them. I hope this can help my daughters quickly orient themselves into the new class and make new friends,” Gao said.

Tang Xiaolu, a teacher of a Primary One class at the school, said she would try to distinguish between each twin pair by slight differences in their physical appearance, such as facial birthmarks, clothing and individual personalities.

“We teachers will also communicate with parents to understand more about the twin students and hope they will soon be adapted to primary school life,” said Tang.

It is not the first time the school has had experience educating large numbers of twins. The report said it received 12 pairs of twins in the 2020 enrolment intake, 13 in 2021 and last year.

Dr Amy Wang, a Hong Kong-based family doctor, told the Post that globally, the chances of a couple having twins range from 0.5 to 4 per cent, but said the twin birth rate had increased in recent years according to statistics from the US National Centre for Biotechnology Information.

Stories about high twin birth rates often trend on mainland social media.

In May, a story about a single family with four sets of twins across three generations in central Henan province captivated people online.

Last year, a “twins village” in southwestern Sichuan province with at least 33 pairs of twins born to 631 families fascinated mainland social media.