How does という work here?

Question

The sentence in question: そんな中、大阪・八尾市にある興味深い保育園を見つけました。ここでは５０年前の開園から変わらず、今でもおんぶを取り入れているというのです。

For full context: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/web_tokushu/2018_0521.html?utm_int=news_contents_tokushu_004

My attempt at translation: "...we found a nursery school of great interest in Osaka yaoshi. There, without change since the opening before 50 years, they adopt piggyback rides until now."

I just translated the sentence like という wasmt there. And I guess thats basically how you do it here, but I still dont understand the function of という and therefore Id like to know what it adds to the sentence ^^

Furthermore, Ive left out そんな中 because to be honest, I have little idea what it represents here xD

Answer 1

In this context,

「Mini-Sentence + というの + だ/です/である」

means:

"To my surprise/Somewhat surprisingly, they say/I have heard that (Mini-Sentence)"

The newly-found piece of information is "just a little bit unexpected" is the nuance of the expression for us native speakers, which you will never arrive at by literally translating it into another language.

For that reason, this phrase is occasionally used in conjunction with the word 「なんと」, which helps place more emphasis.

「そんな中」 refers to the present-day trend where holding the baby is more common than おんぶするing it.