By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY
BEIJING — Six-year-old Yang Xuening attends classes at a private school from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, plus three-hour sessions Saturday and Sunday. But her father denies it's a heavy schedule. "There are parents who organize far more for their kids," Yang Jinyao says. "All my friends send their kids to extra classes."
In a nation of 1.3 billion people, getting a head start for one's offspring, often an only child, can prove a major, costly headache. And it's getting worse, some educators say, as China's exam-focused system ramps up the pressure, even on preschoolers.
American parents have long hustled to secure the best early-childhood education to smooth the path to success, but it's a new and now widespread phenomenon for Chinese families. Where China once espoused an egalitarian, socialist society, students today face a highly competitive system racked by underfunding and imbalances between city and countryside, China experts say.
"Traditionally, most Chinese parents believe it is better to let their children play until they are 6, then start learning at primary school," says Du Juan, an editor at the China National Society of Early Childhood Education, a non-profit. In larger cities, many kindergartens now focus on prepping for school entrance exams, "which has a negative influence on children's mental development," she says.
"Most of the learning is based on memory, not creative thinking," Du says. "The solution is to mix play and learning, with less focus on exams, but the reality is cruel: Now, most parents can't just let their kids play."
The culprit is clear, says Zhao Yong, an education specialist at Michigan State University. Despite recent moves to widen enrollment methods, China's college entrance exam, taken by almost 10 million students this year, "actually decides the whole education system," Zhao says.
"Every level is a selection process," he says, whereby the right kindergarten can feed into schools offering better access to top colleges. "In the USA, you go to college to learn something. In China, it's about having a credential. That's more important than what you learned there," Zhao says.
Just getting into kindergarten can be a challenge in rapidly supersizing cities such as the capital, Beijing, where state-run kindergartens have dwindled in recent years. This month, more than 100 parents waited in line for three days outside a kindergarten in Beijing's suburbs, reported the state-run China Daily newspaper — for just five available spots.
Premier Wen Jiabao in July ordered officials nationwide to solve the crisis. Beijing promised to spend $737 million over five years building 118 new kindergartens and enlarging 300 more.
Competition for places in kindergartens and primary schools has grown severe over the past two years, says Lian Huangcen, founder of the Oriental Pyramid Children's Potential Training School in Beijing.
"All good schools require an interview and exam, and kindergartens, too, now require an interview," she says. "As soon as women get pregnant, many go to register at kindergartens, or their children won't get in."
That's good news for Oriental Pyramid, which specializes in preparing preschoolers for primary school, and has grown to 300 branches in the past nine years. Yang Xuening is among 5,000 children attending its Beijing classes. In March, her father removed her from an ordinary kindergarten and enrolled her full time, at a cost of $1,918 for six months.
Chinese society "places too much pressure on children, and the pressure on those about to enter primary school is unimaginable to parents," complains Huang Heqing, a psychology professor at Beijing University who researches child education.
"It's connected to the pressure of the college exam moving lower (to tests at a younger age), and the uneven distribution of educational resources," Heqing says. "Parents have no option but to send their children to additional training classes."
China wants to boost the number of children taking three years of preschool to 75% in 2020 from 51% in 2009. Preschoolers will jump from 26 million to 40 million, mostly in the state-run kindergartens that appeal to the many parents who cannot afford the booming but more expensive private sector.
"Many parents, and all officials right up to Wen Jiabao, are very concerned that the Chinese educational system produces students with high test scores but low ability," Zhao Yong says. "That won't help China move from a cheap labor economy to an innovation-based economy," an oft-stressed government goal.
For now, Yang Xuening has passed the first hurdle, scoring 92% in her primary school entrance exam.
"I enjoy the singing, and I never feel tired in class," she says of her busy schedule at Oriental Pyramid.
Her dream? To be a kindergarten teacher, her father says.
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