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killian

multiple times on the chinese premier english language news service, the invaluable CCTV9, i have hear the talking heads opine that since 2008 "compulsary education" in china is now "free". but, in the next segment they'll interview folks stretched to pay public school fees. this apparent contradiction seems to pass free of the bilingual editors. which is it? free or no?

so, is compulsary ed. in china now free in your neck of the woods? it isn't in mine and the rate of middle school dropouts aches me.

Buck Lin · Joined: 13 Oct 2008 Posts: 405 Location: nanchang china

Killian anyone who has been in China a while knows not to watch channel 9. Learn Chinese and observe what is going on around you. Use a proxy server and find out what is going on outside and what is being said about China outside. People pay for education here and like everything Chinese , expensive does not mean quality. Chinese don't know quality because this was a bourgois thought in the past. I think everyone pays here but is token in many places. Two years ago for instance I had a friend who taught PE, who sold used basketballs that the school purchased.

killian · Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 5:58 am Post subject:

yes, we all swim in proganda every moment of the day. i was just hoping that here was somewhere, anywhere in china were the kiddies were actually getting the free education that their gov't has been bragging about.

anywhere?

Sonnibarger · Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 320 Location: Wuhan

nope... i know my school is a lot cheaper than private kinders...but parents are still paying for public primary... cops and others with power get it free their kids in for free...

Ahchoo · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 606 Location: Earth

Zhuhai is the first and only city in China (as far as I know) to offer free schooling, including books, up to finishing high school to all local residents, that is, those who hold a Zhuhai Hukao.

eddy-cool · Joined: 06 Jul 2008 Posts: 1008

Elementary education is 'free' to the extent that the kids get 40 hours a week of frontal teaching and a pile of homework assignments to do.

Imagine if all the parents had to pay the teachers for theirs performance on these exhausting jobs!

The parents do pay registration plus meals taken in the canteen plus school materials and occasional outings (extra). That may amount to several hundred kuai a semester or year.

When the daughter of my ex enrolled at a local school, she as a waidiren had to pay double. It amounted to 1800 yuan a year.

You can hardly run a school for a year on 1800 yuan or half (for the locals) if you have to remunerate 20 teachers, a grasping principal, plus overheads such as bank loan repayment.

At tertiary school level, fees are considerably higher but universities tend to have huge debts too. Haven't you noticed that many universities had to relocate these past few years out of convenient downtown locations to the boonies far, far out in the green?

Yes, and those brand-new campuses were not cheap to set up!