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Very good decision. Not only it should discourage but it should also give penalties for people sending their young children abroad for schooling.
University studies are a different matter, but sending young children to middle school abroad is an aberration. High-school should be discouraged, for sending middle school give penalties, and University neutral/encourage.
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University studies are a different matter, but sending young children to middle school abroad is an aberration. High-school should be discouraged, for sending middle school give penalties, and University neutral/encourage.
The Chinese government wants to discourage the rising trend of parents sending young children to attend schools in America, Britain, Australia and other countries.
An increasing number of Chinese children – some as young as 10 – are being sent to schools abroad by their ambitious parents, new data shows.
More than 700,000 Chinese children were enrolled in schools overseas in 2019, an increase of 6% from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Education.
That figure is expected to rise in the coming years, sparking concern from the Chinese government. In January, the Education Ministry said at a national conference that it would build “a mechanism to discourage minors from studying abroad.”
It believes that some children are too young to be sent so far away for their education.
Chinese students studying at the University of Sydney prepare to move back home during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Reuters
But the parents of twelve-year-old Mingming, from Shanghai, disagree. They are preparing to farewell their son after he was accepted into a boarding school in Washington D.C.
They believe sending him to an American institution for middle school will give him an advantage in passing secondary school exams and eventually gaining a spot at a top college.
More than 80% of China’s millionaires are planning to send their children to an overseas school, a 2016 survey by a Shanghai research firm found.
Despite the global pandemic in 2020, the number of grade seven to twelve students who took courses and exams for studying abroad increased.
In China, competition for a place at a local university is incredibly fierce. Experts say intense academic pressure in China is among the reasons parents choose overseas schools.
“China may not be so bad at education, but for the kids, it’s just too hard,” said Mingming’s mother, Dong Hong.
“I know that all roads lead to Rome [for my son]. But I hope the road he takes is not too narrow,” she added.
Many wealthy families also believe an international diploma and degree will give their children better career prospects when they return to China, said a senior researcher with the National Institute of Education Sciences, Chu Zhaohui.
Others believe China’s strict education system makes it almost impossible for children to develop personal interests, such as sport.
The large and growing number of Chinese students studying abroad has become a key source of revenue for foreign higher institutions. Photo: Xinhua/Michael Nagle
Jia Jia, whose son Yangyang moved to Australia, for grade seven, said the family had initially planned to send him overseas for university.
However, they moved the timeline forward to middle school when they realized Yangyang had no time to enjoy sports, due to the heavy homework burden.
The youngster, who previously studied at a school in the Haidian district of Beijing, highly regarded for its quality education, loves swimming and football. But he was unable to enjoy them under China’s high-pressure education system.
“All the messages sent from his teacher about his grades and rankings made us worry that he might lose in Zhongkao (the senior high school entrance exam). There’s just too much pressure,” Jia said.
A senior researcher with the National Institute of Education Sciences, Chu Zhaohui, said the government needed to encourage employers to use home-grown talent instead of prioritizing returning residents if they were going to reverse the trend of international study abroad.
“But, ultimately, it’s still the family’s own decision based on all the pros and cons. So, I don’t think there can be a specific policy that will immediately stop them from getting international education for their children,” he said.
Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the Shanghai-based 21st Century Education Research Institute, said there was no immediate way to prevent families from sending their kids abroad, but China should consider reforming its education system.
To discourage parents like Dong and Jia, “the government needs to promote a more individualized education and change the way students are evaluated,” said Xiong.
Proof of the large number of children studying abroad was evident when the pandemic hit, as Chinese parents begged the government to charter flights to bring their young children home from the US, UK and Australia.
While the impact of Covid-19 is still being felt for international students, the halt to study abroad programs was temporary, believes Chu.
“They may meet difficulties in terms of transportation and so on but this influence would be short term. I’d say within three years,” said Chu.
More than 90% of China’s high net-worth individuals said they would not cancel their children’s international study plans, but might postpone it, a joint-report by China CITIC Bank and the Hurun Report in November showed.
China wants to stop exodus of young children studying overseas
The Chinese government wants to discourage the rising trend of parents sending young children to attend schools in America, Britain, Australia and other countries.
