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Overnight, a large number of middle-class people are "escaping bilingualism" and turning to public schools.

Indeed, the enrollment of international schools in Shanghai this year is not ideal. Even for some top schools, the number of applicants is only 50% of that in previous years.

The considerable economic expenditure has led many people to exclaim: "The mortgage is nearly 10 million, the spouse does not work, and the second child is going to school abroad. This is simply the three things that will cause the middle class to fall back into poverty."

But jokes aside, the tuition fees that are rising every year do hit some families who can barely afford to attend such schools.

However, the reason behind this year's trend of the middle class fleeing international schools is not just because they are expensive.

Leaving a bilingual school

It's not just about money

Because it was not far from her home, there was a corresponding public elementary school and junior high school, and it happened to be a key school in the district. The eldest child went to public schools all the way, and went to extra classes after school one day a week, so his life was full.

After the college entrance examination, the child was admitted to a non-local university with a mediocre score, which was neither a "985" nor a "211". After more than ten years of hard study, it seemed that not a single day of time was wasted, but the final result was not satisfactory.

The child of Lele's next-door neighbor, a boy in the same grade as her eldest child, was sent to an international school since he was young. He almost never received tutoring, but was later admitted to the University of Hong Kong.

In contrast, she made up her mind to transfer her second child from a key public school to a bilingual school.

To this end, they moved to another district in the city and rented a house near the school to accompany their children to school. In order to get into this school, they even specially prepared for half a year to take extra classes.

However, just two years later, during the summer vacation of 2024, Lele's family had a "dramatic change of attitude" and wanted to transfer the second child back to public school.

The child himself was actually unwilling to do so and said to his mother: I have just adapted to the international school, why do I have to transfer again... Not to mention the large amount of summer tutoring that comes with it in order to seamlessly connect the course progress.

But Lele obviously sees more than the children: "Because the application results of this year's schools are not as outstanding as imagined." The "excellent admission schools" on the list are only at the top 50 in the United States.

At this time, the eldest sister who did not get into a top university in China also began to prepare to apply for overseas graduate studies. But she found that the schools to choose from were much richer than these "top 50".

The cost of tuition fees, renting a house, family members accompanying their children... after investing so much energy in the international education of our second child, all of a sudden, the advantages were gone.

This year, Shanghai's "Four Major" bilingual schools, represented by Pinghe and Shiwai, have all raised their prices, with the highest increase reaching 30%.

According to statistics, the total annual expenditure of attending a bilingual school is basically 1.5-2 times the tuition fee.

Lele moved into this remote suburb of Shanghai to accompany his second child to school. Most of the tenants in the community are parents who accompany their second child to school like them. The rental price here is more than 100,000 yuan per year.

But “money” alone cannot explain everything, because for these families, even if they attend public schools, the cost of education is not low at all.

Lele Da Wa's tuition fees also cost more than 100,000 yuan. Some one-on-one math classes cost more than a thousand yuan per lesson.

Many parents enroll their children in interest classes, such as folk music classes, which cost 2,000 yuan per class. And at this price, the price will continue to rise as children go to junior high school and high school.

Not to mention the biggest expense of "school district housing": if you want your children to go to a good public school, the cost of housing is sky-high.

Compared to the huge cost of buying a house in Shanghai, which can easily cost tens of millions, the cost of attending a bilingual school is not so high as one might imagine. Moreover, there are many bilingual schools with relatively affordable prices, and the tuition fees of several hundred thousand yuan are probably affordable for many Shanghai families.

It is not uncommon for parents to set aside 5 million yuan to support their children's education until they graduate from college.

But for children to attend a bilingual school, parents have to put in a lot of effort. Moving to a new home to accompany their children means longer commutes and changes to family life.

Lele's second child is in the sixth grade now, and if he continues to study, he will have to endure another six years of hardship. In the current economic environment, everyone will naturally re-evaluate whether the investment ratio in education is appropriate.

As if overnight, bilingual schools lost their magic. Like Lele’s story, the “escape from bilingual schools” among the middle class in first-tier cities has become a new hot topic.

Entered an international school

It doesn't mean easy

Most bilingual schools use a curriculum system that is in line with international standards. "The ones that are more familiar to everyone, such as AP and A-level, were the first to be introduced into China," Wang Fan told me.

Today's new curriculum is taking things to a higher level, both in terms of the complexity of the coursework and the assessment of students' comprehensive qualities.

Take the currently popular IB as an example. The course with a full score of 45 points is divided into 6 major modules, covering different categories such as literature, social sciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and art. Each course is divided into standard difficulty (SL) and high difficulty (HL).

If you want to apply to an Ivy League university, your course scores must be above 40.

Therefore, some parents who decided to transfer their children back to public schools also said frankly,I originally wanted him to avoid the national college entrance examination and come to a happy education. But after studying for a while, I found that the study and life here are just as competitive.

"It's easier to just sit back and relax (in a bilingual school). The teachers won't discipline you as much as they do in public schools. But in the end, you'll find out that there is no such thing as a good student without a lot of experience."

If you want to be truly happy, then during the application season there may be a huge watershed.

In addition to their studies, students in bilingual schools must complete 150 hours of extracurricular activities during middle school. These "colorful" extracurricular activities are often the key factor in deciding their application.

"So many children have no time to spare outside of their classes," Wang Fan said. During the summer vacation, they have to take time out to study abroad and attend summer school to experience the educational environment there in advance.

Many more people choose to continue taking classes - whether it is art or sports competition, it takes a lot of time to train.

If children in public schools learn piano and violin more to cultivate their interests and hobbies, then for students in bilingual schools, such "interest classes" have completely gone beyond interest.

"Because they are really part of the coursework and are the main subjects." If you don't devote your time to practicing, you will be doomed to have no advantage in future applications.

Moreover, in recent years, even real education abroad is far from easy, and tutoring has become commonplace. Stories such as the "chicken baby" in the Bay Area of ​​California, USA, have long been common.

As the "Chinese version" of overseas education, the biggest feature of bilingual schools is that they can provide children with more choices. But if you expect to enjoy a relaxed education here, you may be disappointed.

In fact, Wang Fan told me that many of his classmates who had studied all the way through bilingual primary and junior high schools chose to return to public schools after the high school entrance examination.

"You might be surprised, but for many kids this has always been a way out."

In the past two years, the number of bilingual schools has also dropped sharply.

Three to five years ago, Shanghai carried out a major reshuffle of private schools. Many "bilingual schools" that were run haphazardly or even lacked qualifications were directly delisted by the education department.

In 2020, the Ministry of Education issued new measures for the appointment of foreign teachers, clarifying that foreign teachers need to have qualifications and certificates to engage in teaching professions in China.

This has led to the departure of a large number of overseas teachers who have been teaching for a long time and are "experienced" but lack qualifications. The pandemic has exacerbated this situation.

The number of foreign teachers in today's bilingual schools is much less than before. Although there has been some recovery over the past year, it has still not returned to its peak level.

Spending a lot of money to attend a bilingual school but not getting the most authentic education, the more you calculate the cost, the less worth it it seems. Taking the child away becomes a natural choice.

It is difficult to find a job at a prestigious overseas university

Not as competitive as domestic 985?

In fact, behind this phenomenon, from "thousands of people rushing to learn bilingual languages" to taking children back to public schools, is an international education market with "increasingly low cost-effectiveness."

Studying abroad doesn't seem as attractive as before.

It has long been a common understanding that it is difficult to find a job after studying abroad. But even if you return to China, you will not have much advantage in getting into a large factory or state-owned enterprise, and it is even more difficult to pass the civil service exam.

Xiao Meng previously studied at Imperial College, one of the “G5” universities in the UK.UndergraduateIn less than a year after graduating and returning to China, I had changed four companies, but still couldn't find a suitable one.

Li Huan, who graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a well-established liberal arts school, said that only half of his classmates found jobs within six months, and "not even one of them earned more than 10,000 yuan a month."

There are many complaints about the employment of overseas students who return to China on the Internet. Some even return from the United Kingdom and the United States and then go to Japan and South Korea just to find a suitable job.

In this light, how much return is left from studying abroad?

Nowadays, people have begun to know more about overseas schools. Many people have the ability to distinguish whether they are good universities or "gilded" universities. Relying on information asymmetry to "fool" people into studying abroad is becoming less and less popular.

As for the safety issues abroad, the longing of parents and children for their children who are thousands of miles apart, etc., these have become the last straw that broke the camel's back for bilingual schools.

When people are disenchanted with studying abroad, the only criteria for whether to study bilingual education or not are the expectations of the family and whether it fits the personality of their children. It is not surprising if they really want to leave.

As Wang Fan told me, transfers are not uncommon. Families enter and leave bilingual schools in droves, during the transition from primary school to junior high school, during the high school entrance exam, and even in the middle of the semester.

In fact, trial and error is not a bad thing. In fact, many parents now have a more relaxed attitude: "Let him try everything and see what he likes. We can't make decisions for our children."

After the craze in previous years, the middle class’s “escape from bilingualism” means the return of a more rational education.

Perhaps this is what a mature and diverse society looks like.