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Hawaii’s World
TEN million youngsters in private schools in socialist China!? Private schools
flourish in ChinaYes -- and a very great sign of evolution in the world's biggest nation to better fit into the global economy.
Ten million is only a few percent of total school enrollment in this nation of over 1 billion people. But many of these schools rank with Hawaii's private schools and offer some of the best education available in China. They tend be near prosperous urban areas.
In a relatively poor nation they still may cost from $3,000 to $6,000 a year, but this includes Monday-to-Friday boarding while many parents work.
They benefit from increased wealth and savings but perhaps most of all China's radical law allowing only one child per family. That law means each youngster may be backed up by two concerned parents and four concerned grandparents. They want him or her to succeed and all may contribute to the school cost.
My authority on this is Siegfried Ramler, now an adjunct fellow at the East-West Center and president of the Pacific Basin Consortium. Most of his career was at Punahou School, where he taught languages and culture, organized international student exchange programs reaching out to all schools in Hawaii, and led the establishment of its Wo International Center. The center is superbly equipped electronically for students to engage in overseas dialogues.
Ramler spoke at a recent monthly lunch of the China Seminar about his eye-opening recent visit to these schools in China.
As to the big question of why socialist China permits them, he said, China finds private schools a more effective answer to providing the high skills needed in the present age than its government schools. Local governments do not directly control the policy of private schools but Ramler is sure their owners and operators take care not to be shut down.
Often the schools tie in with real estate development outside urban areas and in pleasant surroundings. The developers find the schools a magnet to draw prosperous buyers to their subdivisions. They help arrange school financing, sometimes in intricate ways to meet applicable rules and still keep the schools private.
Private-school students tend to gain a competitive edge for future jobs and success through quality education, computer skills, foreign languages, introduction to the arts, and low student-teacher ratios amid comfortable living conditions. Their schools mostly have good libraries, computer labs, art centers and sports facilities.
RAMLER told of being at a private school on a Friday afternoon, when parents came to pick up the students they had delivered there on Monday morning. Some parents arrived in chauffeur-driven limousines, some in cars, and a relatively few on the bicycles that still are China's dominant mode of transportation.
He described one private-school developer who surveys the market for a year before investment. He gets measures of average income in the community, principal industries, cooperation of local government, distribution of population and children of school age.
Government schools, in contrast to the private schools, tend to be overcrowded and have limited curriculum, support equipment and extracurricular activities.
The exceptions are so-called Key governmental schools, often attached to prestigious universities. These offer excellent education but admission is highly competitive and restricted.
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.