BEIJING: Chinese schools, from kindergarten to high schools, are coming up with creative ways to earn extra cash. Hapless parents find themselves forking out thousands of yuan every month for after-school enrichment classes, uniform fees, heating expenses and even milk orders.
While these items are optional, there is usually some sort of reprisal for those students who do not pay up - from being made to sit at the back of the classroom to the risk of falling behind in grades.
To ensure that students do not freeze during winter, some principals even ask parents for a 'heating fee' of about 200 yuan (S$39) per month to put radiators in unheated classrooms, said driver Zhang Zhihong, 46.
'My teenage daughter has to wear two thick jackets to school as I was unable to pay extra to buy her a seat closer to the heater,' he said.
Such fees are on top of the grey income that schools have long collected as a standard practice. Schools can get as much as 50,000 yuan per student from parents who want to secure a place for their only child.
Teachers also typically receive gifts like expensive jewellery or branded goods during Chinese New Year from students who want to get in their good books.
To give a student a seat in the front of the classroom, teachers in certain schools in smaller cities are said to accept hongbao of several hundred yuan each.
The authorities have turned a blind eye to such under-the-table payments, as it supposedly helps to supplement schools' administrative costs as well as teachers' modest salaries.
China promises a free education for children from age six to 15, but the government funds given to schools are usually not enough.
So 'sponsorship fees', which parents pay to register their child in their preferred primary or middle school, are a key source of funding for the schools.
But the problem of fleecing has become so serious in the past few years that a small number of parents are now up in arms.
Last Tuesday, Beijing Morning Post ran an article after several parents called in to complain about the private weekend tuition that teachers require their students to attend. The cost: 1,750 yuan for 10 eight-hour sessions.
One parent surnamed Zhang said: 'We appeal to the schools and authorities...to give back our children their rest.'
On the same day, state news agency Xinhua ran a commentary on this issue, noting that such practices were against the Education Ministry's rules forbidding extra tuition during students' rest days.
Parents told The Straits Times that they also pay a hefty 200 yuan a month each for their children's catered lunches - more than twice the actual cost - and as much as 500 yuan a year for three sets of poorly made uniforms.
Most parents can stomach these smaller expenses. They are even willing to pay through the nose for extra-curricular 'Math Olympiad' classes, which teach kids as young as four to solve difficult problems including algorithms, presumably to give them an edge when applying for a top high school.
But Beijing-based driver Mu Shuhua, in his 40s, baulks at his five-year-old son's 'lost childhood'.
'My son usually likes to learn, but last week, he sighed, 'I am a child with no weekends',' he said.
He said he has no choice but to continue sending his son to the after-school and weekend enrichment classes. 'I fear my son will lose out if he does not attend.'
The same view was shared by 32-year-old secretary Liu Yun.
'I have only one precious child, so if paying more money means less trouble for her in school, I will pay even though I'm mad about being exploited.'
From The Straits Times
graceng@sph.com.sg
To ensure that students do not freeze during winter, some principals even ask parents for a 'heating fee' of about 200 yuan per month to put radiators in unheated classrooms, said driver Zhang Zhihong, 46.
