NEWS

2023.07.21

【Report】The 58th AJI Frontier Seminar on “Do Household Incomes and Parents’ Expectations Contribute to Money and Time Investment in Shadow Education? Evidence from CFPS2016” was held!

On July 18, 2023, from 14:15~15:15, the 58th AJI Research Frontier Seminar took place online. Dr. XU Puchen, a senior researcher at Asia-Japan Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University, gave a presentation entitled, “Do Household Incomes and Parents’ Expectations Contribute to Money and Time Investment in Shadow Education? Evidence from CFPS2016.”

He investigated how family characteristics, especially income and parents’ expectations, affect expenditure of time and money private education, known as shadow education in China. His team found that urban family income and parents’ expectations for their children’s educational degrees have significant influence on participation in shadow education. In contrast, agricultural families tend to spend less on shadow education. Due to the low regard for formal school education, nearly 60% of families were ready to pay over half their income for private education and in response to this demand, in 2016 the private education market size was 800 billion yuan, with approximately 8 million teachers provided private education to 137 million students.

This has placed a stress burden on children, and a financial burden on families, causing economic problems, children’s health issues, and strained family relationships. A survey of parents using shadow education revealed that 31.5% think it is too expensive, 20.3% cannot see the benefit, and 56% of students are reluctant to study. In 2018, the concerned central government, in order to ensure enough sleep for students and release them from the burdens of excessive homework and private tutoring, set about reforming private educational institutions, limiting their advertising, and forbidding them from registering as “profitmaking companies.” However, China’s university entrance examination system has not changed, and parents’ expectations for their children have not changed either.

Dr. Xu’s team hopes to explore the financial and time-consuming factors involved to find out how the current policy is helping and how the situation can be improved. He asked, “How can the government deal with the suppressed demand?” “If compulsory schools are required to provide more after-school services, how can the government deal with a heavier financial burden?” He suggested introducing new policies to change the parents’ expectations about education to development of vocational education and ensure enough funds for education by taxation (Property tax, Inheritance tax). This interesting lecture was followed by a Q&A session in which Dr. Xu answered questions about comparisons with Japan’s high education costs, income and education, the stress on children and shrinking population problems. The audience appreciated Dr. Xu’s informative lecture.

Dr. XU Puchen delivering his presentation

Please visit the following link for previous AJI Frontier Seminars:
https://en.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/aji/young_researcher/seminar/archive/