The state-run school is situated in the city’s hi-tech innovation district, where many professionals with strong academic qualifications have taken up work and residence, a teacher surnamed Li told the newspaper. The district has 29 universities and 12 state-level research institutes alone.

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Li said the parents’ academic qualifications had no bearing on the school’s admissions policy and that it did not target students with well-educated parents.

Suzhou is home to a research campus of the prestigious University of Science and Technology of China, as well as the Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, which is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Colleges located in the school’s district include Suzhou University, Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University, and campuses of Renmin University and Southeast University.

The school regularly invites fathers who are academics and scientists to give talks to the primary pupils, according to the government WeChat post. Previous topics have included nanomaterials, computer viruses and network security.

“The children find it very fascinating. The priority is not how much the students will remember, but to pique their curiosity about science or other fields, and nurture a broader perspective,” Li was quoted as saying.

The teacher said the school focused on fathers’ participation in school affairs because Chinese dads tended to be less involved in children’s education at home. But the school would also encourage scientist mothers to give talks in the future, Li said.

Pupils are also invited to visit the laboratories of scientist parents and examine lab specimens there.

“From when my child was small, I began explaining the 5,000 years of Chinese history to them – from the thinnest to the thickest textbook. I have already done this three times,” one parent and lecturer, Hua Daoben, told Suzhou Television.

Li said the school did not expect to get so much attention, and would not be using the publicity to promote itself.

“This is so that children can communicate face-to-face with professors and have their love of scientific research nurtured,” deputy head teacher Hu Xiuxi told the local broadcaster.

Some elite kindergartens and primary schools in China have come under fire in the past for including parents’ academic qualifications and job titles when assessing their children’s enrolment applications.

In February, Shanghai authorities banned local schools from evaluating children’s résumés and their parents’ qualifications as part of the selection process.

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Online reaction to the school has been mixed, with some on microblogging site Weibo highlighting the unfair advantages the pupils would have over others.

“People gather together with their own kind. In future, these kids will all go to elite universities and leave the other children several streets behind. This is called winning at the starting line,” wrote one commenter.

Another said: “The area is full of hi-tech enterprises that meet the standards for preferential policies, which attract talent. The school is OK for a district school in Suzhou, but it’s not one of the best. I think this school is just promoting itself.”