A little girl is choosing exercise books with her mother.

Education fees a heavy burden

"My son's education fees make up the largest part of our expenses," said Yang Hailing. In order to foster the best education for her son, she made a "donation" of 40,000 yuan to a famous kindergarten, to ensure her son was on the school's roster. School choosing has placed a lot of pressure on parents. As the survey found, 72.4 percent of people feel education fees are a heavy burden to ordinary families; 64.8 percent believe the fees will result in illegal practices at some schools; and 63.6 percent think the education system is losing its fairness.

According to Zheng Ruoling, a professor of the Educational Research Center at Xiamen University, the worst effect of parents choosing schools is the unfairness of education: children in rich and powerful families have little difficulty getting accepted to good schools, while children in ordinary families have less and less access to a good education. "Additionally, it will leave a negative impact on the children. What kind of people will they grow up into if they get accustomed to this phenomenon in childhood?" Zheng said.

For Ren Baoju, most parents choose schools only in an attempt to ensure their children can go to a good college in the future. They don't have a thorough understanding of what kind of education their children need. The tough trainings will make the children result-oriented and cause them to lose the habit of thinking, which will have a bad impact on their entire life.

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