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Poster News Chief Reporter Chen Yangyang reports from Jinan

With the arrival of summer vacation and the annual college entrance examination, many parents are once again beginning to worry about enrolling their children in classes.

The reporter's investigation found that in the past three years, there has been a "polarization" phenomenon among parents when it comes to summer tutoring classes. Some parents are still trapped by the number of "papers". Some parents enroll their children in nearly 10 tutoring classes in one summer vacation, and some parents spend nearly 100,000 yuan to enroll their children in classes during the summer vacation. On the other hand, some parents have joined the "withdrawal trend", giving up art specialty classes and art exams.

During the summer vacation, two primary school students were performing musical instruments downstairs where the interest class was located, and some parents were waiting for their children to finish class while looking at their mobile phones.

Parents stuck in summer school

"I enrolled my child in a summer tutoring class with 10 classes over 10 days, which cost more than 7,000 yuan in total," said Meng Jun, a parent from Jinan.

Meng Jun told reporters that his daughter was admitted to a famous high school in Jinan this year. Considering that his daughter had been studying hard for nine years from elementary school to junior high school, the whole family can breathe a sigh of relief now that the result of the high school entrance examination is ideal. For this reason, the family even celebrated it specially.

This summer, Meng Jun originally planned to let his daughter have a good rest, and he would not have to pick her up every day, so that they could "lie down" for a while. However, he soon changed his mind.

Meng Jun felt like he was "trapped" in the summer classes.

"Can you tolerate your child not being able to keep up after entering high school and only getting 60 points in math? No!" Meng Jun said. He has been unable to remain calm since he heard that some children were admitted to prestigious high schools but could not keep up with the progress.

"I found that this summer, many parents of freshmen have enrolled their children in junior high school and high school tutoring classes to learn high school knowledge in advance!" Meng Jun said that other children's early start means that his own children may fall behind. If other children know everything, it may indirectly affect the teacher's teaching progress after school starts. What should I do if my own children can't keep up with the fast progress? He couldn't take the risk, so he gritted his teeth and enrolled his child in a summer class.

Unexpectedly, the summer classes were just the beginning. A parent Meng Jun knew planned to enroll his child in a year-round tutoring class, but the price was far beyond his budget.

"This tutoring class has a make-up class every weekend and the annual price is more than 40,000 yuan. If you sign up for three consecutive years, you can get a discount." Meng Jun said that he did the math and found that this kind of tutoring class would cost about 100,000 yuan in three years, which he really couldn't afford.

Like Meng Jun, Liu Hui, a parent from Jinan, is also worried about his child's tutoring classes.

"Chinese, math, English, swimming, basketball, programming, painting... a total of nearly 10 tutoring classes." Liu Hui said that her son is in the fourth grade this year and has signed up for nearly 10 tutoring classes during the summer vacation.

"We don't enroll in many classes. We only enrolled our child after hearing that other families were very competitive." Liu Hui told reporters that the school his child attends places more emphasis on quality education, and the teachers don't assign much homework, but the parents attach great importance to after-school tutoring. He enrolled his child in a math tutoring class that he "grabbed" with a classmate's parent.

"That parent is also in the education industry, and she also chose to enroll her child in a tutoring class," said Liu Hui.

"The classes my friend enrolled her child in are very expensive. I thought the 600 yuan per class for classes other parents enrolled their children in were quite expensive. She enrolled her child in a class taught by a star teacher, and each class for one subject costs 1,200 yuan. The total cost for three courses for the entire summer vacation is nearly 100,000 yuan, and the annual cost is about 200,000 yuan." said Lin Hui, a parent of a fourth-grade child in Jinan.

The quietly rising tide of “course withdrawal”

Shouldn't we let children have some rest during the summer vacation? In recent years, some parents have begun to reflect on this.

"The number of interest classes we have enrolled our child in has been reduced from seven to three, and will be further reduced in the future." Ms. Li, a parent of a second-grade child in Jinan, said that in the first semester of the first grade, her child was enrolled in seven interest classes, including calligraphy, painting, programming, street dance, etc. Now, calligraphy, painting, programming and other courses have been dropped.

"The child will still have to go to school for more than ten years. Both parents and children are too tired. We don't want to consume the child too much too early and make the child suffer so much." Ms. Li said that six months ago, she decided to withdraw her child's classes and currently only retains the subjects that the child particularly likes.

There are many parents who share the same idea as Ms. Li, and some parents have clearly felt the "withdrawal wave" from tutoring classes.

"I found that many parents around me have started to withdraw their children from classes. It seems that everyone is unable to concentrate and has come to terms with it." Jinan parent Zhou Ying said that she has not enrolled her children in any summer tutoring classes for several years in a row, and instead chose to let her children "have fun" freely.

Zhou Ying told the reporter that she had let her daughter plan her summer vacation life since last year, and handed over the financial power and travel strategy to her daughter. Zhou Ying believes that such an arrangement is happier than letting the child be "trapped" in a tutoring class. Arranging more free travel during the summer vacation will broaden the child's horizons, learn a lot of knowledge, and exercise multiple abilities.

"We won't enroll our children in classes this summer. We will take them back to our hometown to have some fun." Zhang Yan, a parent of a first-grade student in Jinan, said that she had enrolled her children in painting, piano and programming classes, but she felt that her children were already very tired. She decided to let them have a good rest after finally having a summer vacation. Now, her children are happily playing with their grandparents in their hometown.

"I am very skeptical. Is it worth it for parents to spend so much money to enroll their children in classes? Can it really help children change their destiny in the future when it comes to studying and working?" Qi Fang, a parent from Jinan, said that she had originally enrolled her child in three or four spring interest classes, but after the summer vacation began, the courses were still not completed. If all the courses were completed, the child would have very little time left to rest during the summer vacation, so she planned to "withdraw" the child early to let him rest.

Escape from the expensive and "competitive" art exams

"In the past few years, we also participated in art exams, which consumed a lot of the children's energy. Once, the child had already returned to his hometown for vacation, but in order to take the exam, he flew back specifically to attend training." Zhou Ying said that this summer vacation, the family simply gave up various art exams and training.

Looking back on the summer vacation when her child flew back to train for the exam, Zhou Ying felt too exhausted and it was not worth it in terms of time and energy. Will the exam still be useful for further studies in the future? After careful consideration, Zhou Ying rejected all the invitations from tutoring teachers for exam training this year.

Some parents in Jinan have returned to rationality and given up letting their children take exams blindly.

Mr. Xie, a parent of a second-grade student in Jinan, holds a similar view. In his third year of piano lessons, he has been declining invitations to have his child take the exam. "I don't think the exam will have much effect on my child, and now there are no extra points for students with special talents, so there's no need to put so much pressure on my child," Mr. Xie said.

Sun Lei, a parent of a second-grade student, is still struggling. Her child has been learning piano for three years and has taken a grade test. This year, although she still signed her child up for the grade test, she feels that it does delay her child's rest and play time.

The reporter noted that in 2014, the Ministry of Education began to raise the admission score for cultural courses in the art exam, and the following year the policy of giving extra points to students with artistic talents was cancelled. In 2018, new regulations were introduced, requiring that the admission score for the art exam should not be lower than 65% of the local college entrance examination admission score. By 2019, the admission score for the art exam rose to no less than 70% or 75% of the local college entrance examination admission score.

Now, the Ministry of Education requires that from 2024, colleges and universities will stop recruiting high-level art troupes. According to media reports, many colleges and universities across the country have successively issued announcements, announcing the suspension of high-level art troupes and high-level sports teams. 2024 is known as the initial year for the implementation of the "new art exam" in many places across the country. Shandong has also officially cancelled the recruitment of high-level art troupes, and only one type of enrollment, the special type of college special plan, is retained.

Under the background of the reform of art examinations, some parents have sobered up from the art track and quit the track of "bidding" for art at a high price. Nowadays, some parents pay more attention to cultivating their children's interests. In the process of cultivating their children to practice piano and painting, some parents gradually recovered from the anxious state and became more peaceful, and the parent-child relationship has eased.

A parent in Jinan gave up on letting his child take the art exam and decided to take the child out for a trip.

"I heard that the art exam has been reformed, and it is not easy to pursue art studies. We didn't want our children to take the art exam route, we just wanted to cultivate a hobby, and felt that the exam would give children a motivation and a sense of ritual to practice the piano. But in the long run, this will indeed delay children's summer vacation play time." Sun Lei said that she originally wanted to let her children go back to her hometown to relax during the summer vacation, but because the spring tutoring courses had not been completed yet, and there would be intensive training for the exam in a while, she only dared to let the children go back to her hometown for ten days, and they had to come back quickly for tutoring classes.

"We may also give up the exam next year and try to give the summer vacation back to the children," said Sun Lei. (Some parents are pseudonyms to protect their privacy)