How bribery opens doors to elite mainland schools
Bribery in mainland schools is rampant. William Wan meets some of the parents torn between paying up and playing fair
For years, Yang Jie's friends warned her to save up for her daughter's education. Not for tuition or textbooks, but for the bribes needed to get into Beijing's better public schools.
A self-made businesswoman, Yang largely ignored their advice. "Success in life," she told her daughter, "is achieved through hard work."
If everyone else is playing the game, how can I refuse?
But now, with her daughter entering the anxiety-filled application process for middle school, Yang is questioning that principle. She has watched her friends shower teachers and school administrators with favours, presents and money. One friend bought a new elevator for a top school. His child was admitted soon after.
Reining in corruption has been the main focus of China's new president, Xi Jinping. But such campaigns are barely making a dent, critics say, in a country where children are shown as early as elementary school how to play the system.
Almost everything, from admission to grades to teacher recommendations, is negotiable in mainland schools if you know the right person or have enough cash, parents and teachers say. As a result, many believe, the education system is worsening rather than mending the vast gap between the elite and everyone else.
As middle-class parents in Haidian, one of Beijing's most competitive school districts, Yang, 42, and her husband had some money but few connections to help their daughter get into an elite school.
Then, this summer, a dance teacher pulled Yang aside. He said he knew people at the middle school her daughter had been aiming all her efforts at attending. And suddenly, Yang admits, she started looking into how much of their savings she and her husband could cobble together if the dance teacher's friends were to ask for compensation. She still hasn't decided what to do.