Chinese parents are sending their children away to study at increasingly younger ages. It’s a trend the government plans to stamp out.
More than 700,000 Chinese residents moved abroad for study in 2019, a rise of more than 6 per cent from the previous year, according to the latest data from the country’s Ministry of Education. In 2020, despite the global pandemic, there was still an increase in the number of secondary-school students who took courses and exams in preparation of studying abroad.
In a report issued last month by Koolearn, an online education platform used by China’s largest private educational service provider, New Oriental, about 20 per cent of all those who took part in exams for overseas study last year were students at or below grade 12 level, the final year of senior secondary school from which they can go on to higher education.
The Ministry of Education told a national education conference in January that it would build “a mechanism to discourage minors from studying abroad”. However, the ministry did not elaborate on what this would entail. The transcript of the conference was released earlier this month.
It’s not the first time the ministry has expressed concern about the trend of Chinese students moving abroad. In 2016, spokeswoman Xu Mei told a press conference that the ministry didn’t encourage the sending of minors abroad, believing the children were too young to live and study on their own.
Another factor contributing to the exodus of students from China to study abroad is an increase in the number of wealthy families who believe that an international diploma will give their children better job prospects upon returning home, according to Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher with the National Institute of Education Sciences.
The rise in the number of children studying abroad was highlighted during the coronavirus pandemic when travel bans and border closures caused widespread panic among parents, who begged the Chinese government to charter flights to bring their children home safely.
However, experts believe the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Chinese students’ studying abroad will be temporary. “They may meet difficulties in terms of transport and so on, but this will be short-term – I’d say no more than three years,” said Chu.
