天价补习费引发争议

    Wang Yuanyuan

    A father of a Senior 3 student in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, just paid nearly 90,000 yuan (US$13,850) for his son’s three-month tutorial course in the hope of letting his son gain a higher score at the National College Entrance Examinations (NCEE).

    You may think it’s too much for tuition, but the father, identified as Zhou, told a Chinese newspaper that 90,000 yuan for a tutorial course was much cheaper than “buying” a seat at a third-class university in the future. “Only parents of a Senior 3 student can understand this feeling,” he said.

    Actually, similar one-to-one tutorial courses are commonplace, mostly for Junior 3 and Senior 3 students who are about to take the entrance examinations for high school and university. The purpose of these courses is very simple — increase scores.

    Zhou said there are four two-hour classes every day and each class was 240 yuan. All the teachers are full-time educators from key schools familiar with the examinations and if you want a teacher who was currently teaching at Senior 3, it costs a lot more.

    What is so special about these courses? “The biggest difference with other tutorial courses was one-to-one tutoring. Teachers make special plans catering to the students’ levels,” said Chen Wei, a manager at a training school in Harbin.

    Chen said all the teachers were from the city’s key schools, but their contracts forbid them from revealing their identities due to policy. “Parents and students can have a private meeting with the teacher before starting tutoring,” she said.

    Although the price is high, many parents still think it’s worth it. “There are 50 students in one class at school and it is impossible for the teacher to cover them all, so it will be more effective if my son has teachers of his own. Right now, the most important thing is to enter a good university. If he fails the NCEE, I have to pay more for him to enter a not-so-good university or send him abroad and his self-confidence will also be affected by the failure, which may influence his future,” said another father Jiang Zhiyong.

    However, a teacher, Zhong Lingling, from Shenzhen Hongling Middle School, said that students and parents should be careful with these forbiddingly expensive courses.

    “One-to-one tutoring is effective particularly to two types of students. One is those outstanding students that the regular classes cannot challenge. The other is those who struggle so much that it is a waste of time to study with other classmates and a better way is to find a teacher for him to help him with some basic knowledge,” Zhong said.

    “For most students, there is no need for special course. It will help them a little, but does not merit the price,” she said.