Anna Zhao

    anna.whizh@yahoo.com

    A PARENT surnamed Zhuang, whose daughter is about to enter junior grade 2, said he recently received dozens of text messages from cram schools. The relentless marketing was to offer a “kindly” reminder that his child should prepare for the approaching semester by attending lessons at their school.

    While summer vacation should be a time of relaxation for students, more often than not it becomes a third semester — students are as busy as they are in term time taking a full schedule of extra-curricular lessons provided by the cram schools.

    Tight schedules

    Many students keep to a very tight schedule during the summer vacation either through their own choice, or because they are forced to attend extra classes by family members.

    A parent surnamed Li said her 7-year-old daughter had taken English, dancing and painting courses with a training school in Meilin, Futian District. “How will she compete with others in the future if she doesn’t make full use of her time now?” Li said.

    A Bao’an citizen surnamed Wu, whose daughter is a second-year-junior-student, said he received advice from his daughter’s teacher suggesting a few training schools since she hadn’t performed well in her final exams. “My daughter is entering the last year of junior middle school, and I was told that it would be difficult for her to be enrolled in a senior high school if she doesn’t have a good academic record,” Wu said.

    A teacher surnamed Yu, from a top Shenzhen middle school, said that the prevalence of summer lessons is the result of parents having extremely high hopes for their children. “Parents think if their children have average academic ability, it’s necessary for them take summer lessons so that they can improve their scores, and have a better chance of entering a good college. Parents whose children are already good at school think their children should attend extra lessons to maintain their competitive advantage, or else, they will be outperformed by their classmates who have taken extra lessons,” Yu said.

    Primary students who are in their final years also face the same fate of giving over their summer vacation to study, due to the mounting academic pressure.

    Some parents said they didn’t want to turn their children into study machines, but questioned how their children could make better use of the vacation since some courses actually help keep their children entertained, and offer children the chance to socialize with their friends.

    Popular sports courses

    This summer has seen an increasing number of children who want sports training.

    A training manager surnamed Wu, with the swimming pool in the Shenzhen Sports Center, Futian District, said the center had offered special lessons to school students over the summer, and swimming classes for children aged between 6 and 12 were very popular this year.

    Parents who are not concerned about their child’s academic performance see the summer as an important time for their child to develop extra skills, which may help them get ahead in later life, especially in applying to an overseas university.

    A fencing training director with Shenzhen Bay Sports Center, surnamed Song, said the sport attracted many parents because they think it will be good for cultivating rapid reaction. A parent surnamed Pan sent his son to taekwondo lessons at Children’s Palace, because he’d wanted his son to improve his health and become stronger, while also making new friends.

    Luxury training programs such as golf, equestrian and sailing are targeting the city’s well-off families.

    A golf training club in Futian District said it had offered group classes at 6,800 yuan (US$1,070) with Chinese teachers, and 8,800 yuan with foreign teachers.

    A member of staff at the golf club said children who were complete beginners could make strokes after a week’s training, but she said the club did not have a license for running the lessons. “It’s not necessary for us to have a license to offer lessons,” the staff member explained.

    Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau said that in 2012, 490 training schools were found to operate without licenses, far outnumbering the 424 certified ones.

    Rising costs

    Statistics from the Shenzhen office of the National Bureau of Statistics showed service industries saw widespread price increases in July, with summer vacation training lessons showing the biggest price hikes. The cost of elementary English training soared 11.2 percent, while that of basic computer training rose 3.5 percent on the previous month.

    Learnt Training, a cram school featuring tailor-made courses, charges about 20,000 yuan for its one-month 80-hour package lesson. Other institutes charge their group lessons at 80 to 150 yuan per hour, and one-to-one lessons from 100 to 200 yuan per hour.

    Prices for English lessons targeting foreign college applicants keep rising steadily as more local teenagers go to study overseas. New Oriental English charge 500 yuan per hour for their VIP course which offers personalized teaching to individual students.

    A parent surnamed Lin said a piano course and painting course for her 7-year-old daughter had cost 12,000 yuan in total, approximately two months’ salary for her and her husband.

    The costs of these extra-curricular courses are stretching the limits of most families. Many parents say they tried to limit the cost of summer training lessons to less than 1,000 yuan. Some urge the government to open up more public resources like swimming pools so that the costs could be reduced.

    A spokesperson for Xueda Training said the price of good training facilities, like other resources, was regulated by market demand and prices will continue to rise since consumer demand is increasing but capacity is not.

    Public opinions

    An online survey of 1,000 people by China Youth Daily showed that 42 percent of respondents thought summer vacation should be a time for relaxation, 54 percent thought learning and relaxation should be balanced, and only 3 percent of respondents held the opinion that summer vacation should be mainly spent studying. About 60 percent of the respondents thought that attending cram schools during the summer vacation has become a universal trend, and 80 percent said their neighbors or friends have sent their children to training lessons.

    In response to reasons for attending extra summer lessons, 67 percent of respondents said parents have high expectations for their children’s future success, 64 percent thought the stress of competition compels children to take these lessons, and 45 percent said parents have no time to take care of their children, so send them to training schools.

    However, despite summer lessons’ popularity, parents are advised to show caution when selecting a cram school. “Parents should take the training schools’ advertisements with a grain of salt. They should pay visits to them before their children sign up for courses, or else they may risk their money or children’s safety with unlicensed institutions,” said Lu Kejian, an education expert and professor with Shenzhen University.

    Statistics showed service industries in Shenzhen saw widespread price increases in July, with summer vacation training lessons showing the biggest price hikes.