Alexander Pan, February 25, 2010
Beijing, China
Competition for a spot in one of China’s most prestigious universities has always been fierce. However, with the emergence of elite private elementary schools and kindergartens, Chinese children are becoming indoctrinated in this spirit of academic competition from day one.
The intense competition for admission to the nation’s elite universities has created an influx in demand for top tier education all the way down the academic line. To meet this demand for high-end early education, many elite private kindergartens have emerged in China. While these institutions claim to offer a superior education and undoubtedly open up many opportunities for further education, their services do not come cheaply.
One such institution that offers a top of the line education to young students ages one and half to twelve years old, the International Montessori School of Beijing, charges a tuition of between 80,000 to 150,000 RMB. This price tag makes the school nearly as expensive as many American Universities.
While this price tag may seem absurd to many, it does not seem to deter the many parents who are more than willing to pay any price for their children’s future and what they believe to be a superior quality education.
The International Montessori School of Beijing, as well as many of its competitors utilize what is called the Montessori method of education in which students are encouraged study and explore their own individual interests rather than learning through a pre prescribed curriculum. This style of education requires intensive training for its teachers and requires a much higher faculty to student ration than most other styles of education and is thus much more cost intensive.
Parents of perspective young students now must exercise caution when applying for these schools. Many institutions have caught on to the rising demand for these style schools and now claim to offer a “Montessori” style education and charge similar prices while the quality of the education is by far inferior to a true Montessori style education.
Scott Garner the director of Lehman， Lee, and Xu’s Shanghai office commented that “The growing popularity of these types of schools that focus on creativity and free thinking, rather than on rote memorization as is so common in many other schools, demonstrates an important trend in the Chinese psyche. The Chinese people are no longer happy with being the factory of the world. They now have a clear ambition to become world leaders in ingenuity and to develop a powerful creative economy that deals in ideas, rather than raw materials and products. The world should pay close attention to this trend because if a thriving creative economy can be established, China will have no trouble in eclipsing the United States as the world’s most powerful economy. We at Lehman, Lee and Xu look forward to assisting the Chinese people in their efforts to establish this creative economy and are excited to be working in such a dynamic market” .