The answer: a horizon of opportunity and deep pocketed consumers. Anyone who observes the Chinese education market will notice that two things have come noticeably hand in hand; the pressure on China’s one-child policy generation and the rapidly increasing number of educational options for Chinese families to consider spending their financial resources on. The one-child policy, now over 30 years old, was set to control population but has had other effects on a generation of ‘Little Emperors’.
Victoria Tang is a 29 year old owner of Tianjin Jixian Fairyland Bilingual Kindergarten. She observes, “The positive thing about the one child policy is less economic pressure for a family and the major purpose is that the child can have a better life.” But she acknowledges the expectancy of students’ own families can be overbearing. “From a very young age, the child has to accept competition because families expect their kids to be the best at everything.”
And within that everything – English language learning and academic success is high up the list. The Gao Kao or ‘big test’ in Chinese – required for entrance to university in China – has come under intense scrutiny recently because some students are so desperate to pass that they are cheating their way through. Just last year in one of China’s largest cities, Shenyang, a cheating scam was uncovered whereby students had radio transmitters fitted to their shoes in order to pass the test.
For many English language training companies, this climate of competition – teamed with China’s economic uprising – has meant major growth potential: enterprising businesses are capitalising on this desire to succeed, bringing new ideas, attitudes and options for Chinese students. Crazy English is one example – the brainchild of Li Yang, it is a “non-traditional” form of learning English that has seen its creator become a celebrity and a reported 20 million people sign up. (Students shout English slogans in unison in an effort to learn).
As well as bilingual kindergartens, operators such as the expanding Disney English offer language classes for the age group 2-3.
The big guns in terms of English language training for young adults include EF and New Oriental. EF has 160 schools in China and will continue to open one a week this year. One a week! “We have a total of 10 million Chinese studying with us online and offline,” an EF spokesperson told The PIE News.
“We have a total of 10 million Chinese studying with us online and offline”
Meanwhile, New Oriental claims to be the most recognised brand in China for private education. Its website details 55 schools, 608 learning centres (which includes the same 55 schools), and 2.1 million enrolments in 2011 – for its services which include English language training, test prep, primary, secondary school education and study abroad. The ethos is “humorous, interactive teaching techniques with traditional Chinese educational values”.
Wall Street English, operated by Wall Street Institute, is another big player although not quite in the same league yet. But Valerie Kirk, Marketing Communications Manager for Wall Street English, details growth of 10,000 students within 12 months. “Currently we have 53,000 students enrolled in the nearly 60 centers we have in that country. The really interesting thing is that at this time last year our enrollment in China was 42,500 students,” she says.
Other rising stars are Web International English, which has 50 centres in China helping just under 50,000 people and Rise Education, reported to have 100 centers in China throughout 60 locations with nearly 30,000 students. [more>>]
One definite driver for English language learning is studying abroad. Reports indicate demand continues to increase for outbound study, so China has become entrepreneurial in this regard. For example, Chinese students are now able to sit their A-Levels in Beijing high schools, for example, before applying abroad. Once Beijing started to do this, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou soon followed with special courses for students who intend to study overseas. New ideas and ways to approach education are booming.
At last month’s China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market, appetite for education abroad was again underlined. Qinghui Qing, COTTM China representative, said, “Parents are pushing their kids a lot because of their interest in education abroad so organising Chinese students to go overseas is a huge part of the trade show.”
Alongside companies such as EF and New Oriental who not only offer language training in-country but also a study abroad placement service, hundreds of study abroad agencies now exist. One side-effect of China’s success-seeking boom, is, however, bogus agencies offering a dream education which turns out to be not so ideal and stories in the press of such scenarios now occur fairly frequently.
Mike Daly, President of American Education Partners, counsels, “Some of the practices of Chinese overseas counselling agencies have come under particularly hard scrutiny and controversy in the United States over the last few years because of several reports of students’ application document being falsified by the agencies.
This has started a movement by some groups in the United States, most prominently, NACAC (National Association of College Admissions Counselors), to ban the use of overseas counselling agents in member schools’ recruiting and admissions practices.” [Read an interview with Jim Miller, President of NACAC, here].
Daly’s company helps international students, including Chinese, to enter some of America’s best schools and programmes. “The most noticeable area of growth seems to be for products and services aimed at giving students an ever-increasing edge in getting into their top-ranked dream school,” he attests.
Education is said to account for 14% of families’ spending
June Yue, 25, can testify that everyone sets themselves almost unattainable goals. She was educated in Beijing and now works for an education agency in Australia. ‘I have been educated since I was little that the only way to have a good job and a nice life is to be the top student in your class, in your school. The Gao Kao is very important to all of the students and their parents,” she says.
The competitive climate has its costs. “I think about all of my university classmates, most of them are still in Beijing or other cities in China doing a very ordinary job and they are unhappy with low pay,” Yue continues.
During China’s Cultural Revolution, around 80% of Chinese were illiterate and in the 90’s, this started to turn. The transformation in the country’s educational policies and a new rule that primary school would be compulsory meant that 99% of children now attend school and illiteracy is just a few per cent.
Now, education is said to account for 14% of families’ spending. Students need to seek references from companies they pay to help them in their aspirations, and Beijing agency association BOSSA has started trying to clean up the education counselling industry.
The London Statement, announced last week by the British Council and AEI in Australia with buy-in from Ireland and New Zealand, also pinpointed China as one country to target to translate their ethical ideals.
A fast-developing market will engender some problems, but overall, opportunity and appetite abounds in the land of Little Emperors.
