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Stephen Chen

Children as young as three are attending what is billed as a “CEO training course” in southern China, state media reported.
The course for children aged three to 12 is offered by an early education institute in Guangzhou in Guangdong province, the state-run news agency Xinhua said.
Pupils attend two classes a week and annual tuition costs 50,000 yuan (HK$58,000), the report said.
The state news agency report went on to quote experts criticising the pressures put on young children in China enrolled by their parents on other “elite training courses”.
Seven after-school assignments each day - and that’s just Hong Kong’s primary pupils: Parents call for scrapping of TSA exam
A father was quoted in the article as saying that he sent his child to the CEO course because many other children living in the same residential compound attended.
“We certainly don’t want to be left behind,” he said.
We certainly don’t want to be left behind
A father
He admitted the children were playing rather learning most of the time.
Most pupils come from wealthy families, according to the institute, which was not named in the report.
The course includes filing in missing words in sentences and stacking up toy bricks, the report said.
It will “enable the children to become a powerful, competitive leader”, the institute was quoted as saying in its brochure.
The Hong Kong parents choosing to let kids enjoy being kids
Many institutions in China offer so-called elite training courses for very young children.
These can include lessons in dressage, golf and foreign languages for children as young as three and can cost tens of thousands yuan.

The more expensive the course, the more popular they become because parents regard their children’s attendance as evidence of the family’s social status, one dressage training institute in Shenzhen was quoted as saying in the report.
Some parents, however, told Xinhua they were disappointed by the quality of the courses. The teachers were no better than babysitters, they complained.
Many institutes do not have proper accreditation from the educational authorities, Xinhua said.
Some also lack the equipment and management to protect the safety of children in their care, the report added.
Hong Kong parents need to take a long, hard look at themselves – and stop piling pressure on their kids
Mainland educational experts were quoted as saying that parents were signing up for the courses for their own interests, not their children’s.
It was impossible to turn a child into a leader at the age of three, experts were quoted as saying.
Without any leisure time because of an excessive number of extracurricular activities children become tired of learning at early age, the experts warned.


CEO training course on offer in China ... for three-year olds

A file picture of children “graduating” from a kindergarten in Chongqing in southwest China. Photo: Xinhua

CEP69F Chinese-American child gets a golf putting lesson in San Diego, CA, as his mother and father watch.

News

China

Politics

Report by state news agency quotes experts criticising some parents’ obsession with enrolling their children for extra, ‘expert’ tuition to help them get ahead
