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Urban parents in China today have an obsession: to give their children the best possible education, even though the heavy financial burden that comes with can often be overwhelming.

 

In fact, a survey shows that 83 percent of the parents want to admit their wards to the best kindergartens and schools, and 70 percent dream of sending them abroad for studies if they can afford to do so.

 

Almost all the parents interviewed by Ezbama.com, a Chinese website on education, said they had begun preparing for their children's education in either IT or the financial sector even before they had reached school age.

 

The in-depth survey of 1,000 high- and medium-income households in several Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, was conducted to gather as much information as possible on the type of schools and universities parents were most interested in, and how they prepared for their children's education.

 

Catherine Zhang, a Shanghai resident, admitted her daughter Emma to Gymboree, an early-education center, when she was just one year old. It cost Zhang about 10,000 yuan (US$1,282) a year. Now she is collecting information on kindergartens near her home to choose the best for her daughter.

 

She is clear about what an ideal kindergarten should have: "teachers who are good at child psychology and who teach through the advanced Montessori method, a pleasant study environment, a spacious playground and a swimming pool".

 

Zhang has narrowed down her choice to two private kindergartens near her house. And the monthly tuition fee of both is at least 2,500 yuan (US$320). She has put 100,000 yuan (US$12,821) aside exclusively for Emma's education. But she knows that wouldn't be enough, so she plans to save 3,000 yuan (US$385) a month, about half of her salary, after Emma is admitted to a "good kindergarten" later this summer.

 

"I have cut down my expenses on clothes and entertainment to save more for Emma's education because I don't want her to lose out at the starting point in life."

 

Zhang is not the only "generous investor" in her child's education. An average Shanghai family with a child of 18 years or below spends 25 percent of its income on its education, according to a Shanghai Municipal Women's Federation survey conducted in 2005. The proportion is much higher than the 10 percent in many developed countries, including the US and Canada.

 

Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences' expert on marriage and family Xu Anqi, who led a team to survey 746 households in Shanghai's Xuhui District, says a family spends about 490,000 yuan (US$62,820) on a child from its birth to the "marriageable age", and more than half of that amount goes into education.

 

Chen Lan, who comes from a well-off family in Shanghai, is a senior student at the Shanghai International Studies University. She agrees with the findings of the survey, saying the total amount her parents would ultimately spend on her would be more than 490,000 yuan. Her four-year university eduction alone has cost them 120,000 yuan (US$15,385).

 

The amount includes tuition fees of 40,000 yuan (US$5,128), daily expenses that added up to another 40,000 yuan, house rent and books for about 10,000 yuan (US$1,282), clothes that cost her 30,000 yuan (US$3,846) and the cost of computers, mobile phones and luxury items.

 

Chen will leave for the US for advanced studies later this summer, thanks to her parents additional saving of 200,000 yuan (US$25,641).

 

In Beijing, a family needs at least 100,000 yuan (US$1,282) to pay for its child's education from the primary to the high-school level, according to an incomplete China Youth Research Center study in January 2007.

 

"But that's the amount I paid for my daughter's supplementary classes when she was in primary school," says Wu Chuanhua, a white-collar worker. The father of the 12-year-old says: "Many Chinese families are forced to live a thrifty life to save enough money for their children's education."

 

A People's Bank of China (PBOC) survey in the fourth-quarter of 2004 showed about 20 percent of the depositors in China saved money mainly for their children's education, which was more than those saving for housing or retirement.

 

The Ezbama.com survey results tally with that of the PBOC report. About one-third of the families interviewed by Ezbama.com began saving for their children's education right after they were born, with another 33 percent doing so even before they were born.

 

Shanghai parents, especially those whose wards are about to enter a university, are the most prudent savers, according to the survey.

 

Shanghai-based scholar and education expert Yang Dongping says fees in Chinese colleges and universities have shot up drastically. Citing Shanghai International Studies University as an example, he says a student paid only 1,500 yuan (US$192) for a one-year course in 1993. That rose sharply in 1994 to 3,300 yuan (US$423). And today, one has to pay about 12,000 yuan (US$1,538) for the same course.

 

Last year a Shanghai Statistics Bureau report said the per capita monthly income in Shanghai was 2,464 yuan (US$316). "Which means an average Shanghai family needs several months' income just to pay its child's university fees," Yang says. "The high tuition fees have become a heavy burden for even the relatively well-paid Shanghai families."

 

Besides parents' obsession with "elite schools" too has raised the cost of education.

 

China introduced a nine-year compulsory education system in 1986. According to regulations, a child can get complete primary and junior high-school education in designated institutions by paying a small amount as fees.

 

Children could go to such schools on the basis of their hukou or household registrations. Which means a child can go to a school in the area where he is registered.

 

But many parents prefer to send their children to "good schools" in other districts to provide them with "better education". To ensure that, they bribe some officials to change their addresses or pay huge amounts of money to buy extra enrolment quotas for the "good schools".

 

According to a report published in Guangzhou-based Southern Daily in 2006, a schoolteacher in Beijing's Haidian District was shocked to find that the address of more than a dozen first-grade students was the same: a public toilet nearby.

 

Even parents of students who are lucky enough to be born in areas with "good schools" don't take the competition lightly, for they know too well that their children can be barred from attending exclusive classes held for top students if they are not exceptionally good in studies, as well as special talents.

 

"That is the last thing self-devoted Chinese parents would like to see," says Yang. And that's precisely why Wu Chuanhua has been sending his daughter to piano and ballet classes right from the age of 5. It's a different matter altogether that he has to pay 150-200 yuan (US$19-26) for just a one-hour class. On top of that, she has to take supplementary English and math classes at the weekends.

 

"Compared to pupils in ordinary schools, those in good middle schools have a better chance of entering a top university and finding a good job after graduation," Wu says.

 

"That's why Chinese parents try their best to send their wards to 'good schools'. As long as we can afford it, we parents will spend all our money and energy to help them reach the target."

 

(China Daily May 28, 2007)