Out-of-school Education Sector

I remember these lines from a book on TikTok, Attention Factory, which explained why TikTok’s predecessor app (also by a Chinese company) was launched in the US, not China:

“The early US adopters were middle and high schoolers who, after finishing class, had plenty of time for leisure and entertainment. In contrast, Chinese teens typically had a gruelling schedule of after-school tutoring and exam preparation homework.”

Did that sound similar to the life of Indian teens? No wonder then:

“If social media was about sharing one’s life, Chinese teens didn’t have much to share.”

 

It’s easy to understand why this happened in both India and China. When a country is poor, then there aren’t that many jobs out there. To get those few good jobs, it’s key to go to the best colleges, which then leads to very hard entrance exams, in turn triggering a wave of coaching classes.

 

Over the last year or so, the Chinese government cracked down on its $100 billion “out-of-school education sector”. How? By banning classes on weekends, as well as during summer and winter breaks. Education companies were forbidden from raising money via the stock market. The reason for all this? The official reasons were (1) it put too much pressure on kids; and (2) only the better off could afford these classes, which meant only the kids of the already well off stood any chance of getting into the best colleges and thus the best paying jobs.

 

So you thought this was a poor country problem? It certainly was, except that Indians, Chinese and other Asians in the US have made “preparing” their kids from early on to get into the best colleges the norm in many parts of America too! And of course, if one set begins to behave like this, then the rest have no choice but to play the same game (at least in areas with lots of Indians or Chinese).

 

America’s official response to this growing trend is weird. They’re trying to ban certain topics in maths and science in high school. Like (believe it or not) algebra. Many parents (not just Asians) are up in arms because such a decision would in turn mean that kids cannot learn calculus while still at school either. And if have to they learn calculus only once in college, well, wouldn’t they already be behind all those Asians who come to study in the US?

 

Freddie de Boer rails against this proposal. But his point applies universally:

“Rich parents can always send their kids to private schools that will teach advanced material, or they can send their kids to the public schools and supplement their learning there with for-profit classes or tutoring in higher-level mathematics. One way or the other, rich kids are not going to be denied that instruction.”

 

The idea of giving everyone an equal chance of doing well in life. Everyone says they’re in favour of it. Until they have an opportunity to give their own kid an advantage.