A Head Start

　　Zhang Yuxin， only five years old， has a busyschedule. Every week， she spends more than 10 hoursin different schools and training centers， learning math，English， piano， tennis and painting， since her parentsbelieve these are the skills she must possess.

　　This gives one example of how intensely Chineseparents strive to give their children a competitive edge.This increasing awareness of getting ahead in thegame has stimulated a booming pre-school educationindustry.

　　Among the many facets of the early childhoodeducation industry in China， English training hasbecome the most lucrative. In 2013， it was worth 24.5billion yuan， making up 52 percent of the industry’s totalvalue. Despite the booming demand for intensivetraining from a young age， the government has takensteps to reverse the trend.

　　The Ministry of Education reemphasized in its 2014work plan that kindergarten students， who range inage from three to six， should not be subject to thesame rigorous course material as older primary schoolstudents. Instead， the younger students should begiven more time to play， work creatively and socializewith their peers. But regardless of this mandate， newchildren’s training schools have been sprouting up allover the country and foreign training centers have begunto break into the market， eager to fulfill the wishesof determined parents.

　　Demand grows

　　As competition in China’s society grows along withdiscretionary income， parents are increasingly willingto shell out thousands of yuan to give their children anedge.

　　“I dare say that there are few pre-school children inBeijing who have never attended any training classes，”Li Qiong， a Beijing-based children’s educator workingat a center that offers classes for children aged threeto 12， told ChinAfrica.

　　The center Li works for offers a coursepackage designed for children who will enroll in primaryschool in September 2014. According to the center’sbrochure， the five-month course can equip a childwith knowledge of 1，000 Chinese characters， 400-500English words， calculation skills for numbers under 20as well as “comprehensive artistic abilities.”

　　Li， born in the late 1970s， never attended trainingcourses as a child and began her schooling uponenrolling in primary school. But today， most childrenspend their first year in primary school repeating whatthey’ve already learned in training school.

　　“If we put aside parents’ anxiety， there is actually noneed for such early study before primary school，” Lisaid. “The only necessary preparation is to build theircapacity and habits of study.”

　　Wang Xinyi， the mother of a four-year-old son，believes pushing a child so hard before primary schoolis damaging in the long term.

　　“Most parents have no idea about what they reallyneed to get their children prepared for primary school.They are just pushed forward by the great fear of losingin the game，” Wang said. Despite feeling this way，Wang was frequently warned by family members andother mothers about the stress her son would feel inprimary school study if she doesn’t fully prepare him inadvance.

　　With the average price for training courses soaringto about 200 yuan per hour， many parents still aren’tdissuaded. At the start of a session， parents oftenspend the evening lining up outside of the famoustraining schools to secure a seat. With this increasedcompetition comes a lowering of the standard ageschooling is started. Some schools offer courses forchildren as young as a few months old， and expectingmothers have begun trying to map out educationplans during pregnancy.

　　But the emerging market is also unregulated， withfew policies to help it develop. As the industry flourishesand new training centers have seemingly poppedup overnight， many have had their credentials andqualifications questioned. Despite this uncertainty andthe difficulty in measuring a center’s efficacy， manyparents find the training schools irresistible.

　　“Even the adults have no idea what they reallywant， so it’s no wonder that they educate childrenblindly，” said Wang， who insisted her son wouldonly begin training classes if he really wanted tohimself， and instead began teaching him somebasic Chinese characters and math at home.

　　Education vital

　　Wang noticed that among the most stressedparents are those from other cities， whosettled in places like Beijing and Shanghaiafter graduating from top universities. Welleducatedand successful， they understandthe power of education in steering people’slives toward success.

　　Since the gaokao， the national college entranceexamination， was restored in 1977， education has beenhighly valued in China. In 1977， only 4.8 percent of 5.7million students went to college； in 2013， the numberof high school graduates applying for a college hadgrown to 9.15 million， while the admission rate hadincreased to 75 percent due to expanding enrollmentpolicies in the past decades.

　　According to statistics from the National Bureau ofStatistics， education spending accounted for almosthalf of China’s total household consumption in 2011.The parents of the new generation， mostly raising asingle child under the one child policy， tend to investmore in their child’s education than previous generationsdid.

　　The new birth policy passed at the end of 2013allows couples to have a second child if one parentis an only child. The change triggered a tense debatein China， but according to a survey by the BeijingAcademy of Social Sciences， only 33 percent of Beijingcitizens want a second child， with financialburden a main concern.

　　Meanwhile， among more than 20 millionannual newborns in China， two out of threeare in rural areas. But pre-school educationin rural areas is still relatively poor in contrast tourban awareness about early childhood education.

　　To fill the gap between urban and ruraleducation， the Central Government hasinvested 34 billion yuan from 2011 to2013 to develop the country’s pre-schooleducation， with great importance attachedto supporting rural facilities and educationfor the children of migrant workers in urbancities.

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