International schools in China attract more pupils
Parents say they prefer broader vision rather than focus on exams
After years of extracurricular tutoring helped her son win a place in a top middle school in Beijing’s Dongcheng district, Luo Yuheng encouraged him to switch to an international school in September instead of continuing his studies in the same school’s high school division.
She hopes he can use the A-level results from his three years of study at the international school to gain admission to a British university.
“I have had enough of endless examinations, day in and day out,” Luo said. “I don’t want my son to be buried in test papers in high school. What’s the point of having to spend so much time in mathematics Olympiads when he clearly won’t use much of it when he grows up?”
Tutoring for mathematics Olympiad competitions is very popular among the parents of primary school pupils on the mainland because top scores can secure a place in a top junior high school. But Luo had her daughter, a primary school pupil, drop such tutoring, replacing it with sports training and language lessons with a native English speaker.
“To avoid repeating the wrong path, I’ve signed up for a course to prepare my daughter now for international schools,” she said.
