Chinese-style accompanied schooling

The phenomenon that some parents migrate here and there for the sake of their children has been called "Chinese-style accompanied schooling".

Last week, a survey carried out by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily among 7,925 people shows that 62.5 percent of the respondents find "Chinese-style accompanied schooling" to be quite common nowadays.

The survey shows that 57.4 percent of the respondents find parent-accompanied schooling to be more commonly seen during senior high school stage of the children; 43.2 percent chose "junior high school"; and 33.9 percent choose "primary school".

As for the reasons for this phenomenon, the top three ranked in the survey are as follows: "Not wanting their children to bear hardship" (56.4 percent), "ambitious expectations for their children" (55.1 percent), and "creating convenience for the children to go to school (41.5 percent).

The respondents think that accompanied schooling brings a lot of negative impact: Not conducive to the children's independence (67.7 percent), bringing burden to the family (49.8 percent), and causing pressure on the children (48.1 percent).

Professor Cheng Fangping at Renmin University of China said that if China's education can develop in a balanced way and all public schools are good schools with comparable performance, the phenomenon of accompanied schooling will certainly go down.

Professor Ma Hemin at East China Normal University said that parents should look upon accompanied schooling in a rational way and realistically consider what kind of an environment and living conditions are conducive to the child's growth. The academic advantage alone is not sufficient for the children to lead a self-reliant life in the community.