Job Discussion Forums

[Brian Caulfield]

I just visited a school in Nanjing that has space for about 10,000 students and they have about 500 . My present school has room for about 20,000 and they have 500 students attending . Everywhere I see these empty schools . What is the point of building these monstrousities if no students. Are people doing it to avoid paying taxes?
The schools are unique in that they don't have a library . They spend money on lakes , gardens , rubberized tracks and swimming pools but nothing on a library.
Anybody else noticing the same thing ?

[Old Dog]

I haven't seen anything here with such a mismatch between capacity and actual enrolment. There is a large amount of spare capacity being generated here by school building but not to that extent. The thing that struck me as being a curious use of funds was what went on here in the Junior Middle School. It's a beautiful place where the Principal boasts, "Nothing cheap here". The place was not inhabited until every single aspect of the place was totally finished. In the first year, there were a total of 15 classes but there had been set up 27 classrooms, all totally furnished, wired, TV'd, ..... One year later, there are 17 classes - and so the place will grow. But by the time we have 27 classes, those TV sets and other equipment could be a bit old. This was private money, not public money, which made what I saw here all the more curious.

[Sinobear]

My school is over-capacity. The grade ones must use a nearby training center for their classes. It's rather strange, in a city of just over 300K that there's soooooooooo many kids here. I think some schools operate on the same system as normal government organizations as in the west...they have a yearly budget and must use it otherwise their budget will get reduced the following year.

[Roger]

What with those class sizes that we have to put up with, I can't imagine overcapacity for quite some time yet... Maybe in the near future, classes will go down to 35, 30... students? That would be great.
But here in Guangdong, 60 students to one class is still pretty common. Yes, I have seen some unused classrooms and entire buildings, but I am sure they will soon be used profitably.

In fact, it has become a trend for municipalities to construct so-called "univesity towns" that accommodate up to 30'000 students! One is outside of Peking, and one has just been opened last September in the vicinity of Guangzhou.

Chinese for some reason I can only imagine prefer their kids to board. I am sure boarding schools are not going to go out of business soon. Neighbourhood schools maybe.

[kev7161]

My school is in it's 3rd year (or maybe 4th) of being in business. Some of the buildings are only that old. Some even newer. This is a private school. I am appalled at the condition of these buildings. The kids don't take care of anything. The classrooms are little pig stys. I can only imagine their dorm rooms. They sleep 4 to 6 in a room. The primary school had to be moved over to last year's Senior building as the newest building had to accomodate all the bilingual department (which is different from the "regular" departments, don't ask me how). It seems this school is very well-known in much of eastern China. It may continue to grow and grow or it may develop a very bad reputation with all of the FTs and CTs that leave here dismayed and discouraged (as well as a fair number of students) and become a "white elephant" down the road.

[Old Dog]

Roger wrote:

[Gray000]

I bet it's mindless overinvestment... like the apt buildings etc.

[Norman Bethune]