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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">CHINA – PRESSURES ON STUDENTS & PARENTS FOR CHILDREN’S EDUCATION PERFORMANCE & ADDITIONAL SKILLS<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030"><img width="720" height="405" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D51E2F.69F5F2C0" alt="https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d674e3349444d35457a6333566d54/img/54eaef05b10c4469b3384da0ce6a384b/54eaef05b10c4469b3384da0ce6a384b.jpg"></span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">It is hard for many parents to strike the right balance between providing their children a happy
childhood and creating a competitive edge from an early age.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">According to a 2019 survey by 51job.com on children's education investment
</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#C00000">IN CHINA,
</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">38.8 percent respondents confessed to spending around 20-30 percent of their annual household income on their children.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030"><img width="721" height="405" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image006.jpg@01D51E2F.69F5F2C0" alt="https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d674e3349444d35457a6333566d54/img/db1989790ec049dd8858d26bae543314/db1989790ec049dd8858d26bae543314.jpg"></span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:white">The pressure on the children is not abated. /VCG Photo <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:white">n the children is not abated. /VCG Photo <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">The survey also revealed that the expenditure is the highest during preschool and junior middle
school stages, highlighting the escalating trend of increased expenditure on children at a younger age.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">Nearly 60 percent of the surveyed families said that they have enrolled their children in extracurricular
classes, costing between 100 and 200 yuan (15-23 U.S. dollars) per hour.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">A 2018 survey by the Shanghai Association for Quality found that each child, on an average, attends
two classes for two hours per week. The average annual spending for families on these extracurricular classes adds up to about 17,832 yuan (around 3,700 U.S. dollars).<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:black">Kids under mounting pressure</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">Unlike most of the post-80s and 90s kids, who often enjoyed eating watermelon while watching TV
dramas after a long day at school, today's children are compelled to receive interest-oriented classes which are often way ahead of their intellectual levels and not in accordance with their personal interests. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">This stressful trend has permeated the whole society. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">Many parents, partly because of the pressure they face at their workplace, believe their children
mastering a professional skill will be good for their future. Therefore, these parents go for interest-oriented classes to embed strong practicality in their children's personality.
</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:white">a happy childhood and making them competitive from an early age. /VCG Photo <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">The sooner a child starts pre-school education, the better their intelligence quality could develop,
and then there are greater chances of succeeding in the exam-based education system later in their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">Nearly 40 percent of the surveyed families said that an age between 2 and 7 is optimal for starting
children's education, while 22.9 percent families opted for an age between 11 and 15. Some 70 percent families believed that earlier childhood education could help their children lead a decent life in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">Education experts warn that forcing and pushing children to learn may quench their thirst for knowledge
and lead to passive resistance.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">With more and more young parents looking aboard for kids' education, private education services
like bilingual training have sprung up across the whole country.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">The situation gets worse when parents find out that their kid is lagging behind in comparison with
other kids, leaving them more anxious to register for more extracurricular classes. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">"When I found out that my best friend's three-year-old daughter could recognize more words than
my four-year-old son I felt so anxious," Lu, a full-time mother in Hangzhou told CGTN. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">Due to the exam-based education system in China, where most prestigious schools evaluate students
based on their performances in tests, parents feel more anxious about pushing their kids toward private classes for mathematics, music, sports and foreign languages. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:black">When parents plead for more homework<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">Even though the government has issued regulations to limit homework pressure, children in China
are still burdened by their parents with after-school education.</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:white"> e<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">In February 2018, the Chinese Ministry of Education announced measures known as "Jianfu," or "burden
reduction" to ease academic workload of primary and middle school students. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">However, the policy sparked an outcry on social media, with some parents pleading authorities to
give their kids more homework.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;line-height:16.8pt"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">The decision may downsize the resources spent on education and prevent children from poor families
from fairly completing studies with kids from richer families, some parents argued.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#313030">"The policy's true motive is to discourage poor people from having children, which means destroying the traditional Chinese family unit," a netizen
said on Weibo.</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:white"> many parents to strike the right balance between providing their children a happy c</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.apdnews.com/e-china/955479.html">https://www.apdnews.com/e-china/955479.html</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d674e3349444d35457a6333566d54/index.html">https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d674e3349444d35457a6333566d54/index.html</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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