MCLC: education, for a price

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: education, for a price
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (11/21/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/world/asia/in-china-schools-a-culture-of-
bribery-spreads.html

A Chinese Education, for a Price
By DAN LEVIN

BEIJING — For Chinese children and their devoted parents, education has
long been seen as the key to getting ahead in a highly competitive
society. But just as money and power grease business deals and civil
servant promotions, the academic race here is increasingly rigged in favor
of the wealthy and well connected, who pay large sums and use connections
to give their children an edge at government-run schools.

Nearly everything has a price, parents and educators say, from school
admissions and placement in top classes to leadership positions in
Communist youth groups. Even front-row seats near the blackboard or a post
as class monitor are up for sale.

Zhao Hua, a migrant from Hebei Province who owns a small electronics
business here, said she was forced to deposit $4,800 into a bank account
to enroll her daughter in a Beijing elementary school. At the bank, she
said, she was stunned to encounter officials from the district education
committee armed with a list of students and how much each family had to
pay. Later, school officials made her sign a document saying the fee was a
voluntary “donation.”

“Of course I knew it was illegal,” she said. “But if you don’t pay, your
child will go nowhere.”

Bribery has become so rife that Xi Jinping devoted his first speech after
being named the Communist Party’s new leader this month to warning the
Politburo that corruption could lead to the collapse of the party and the
state if left unchecked. Indeed, ordinary Chinese have become inured to a
certain level of official malfeasance in business and politics.

But the lack of integrity among educators and school administrators is
especially dispiriting, said Li Mao, an educational consultant in Beijing.
“It’s much more upsetting when it happens with teachers because our
expectations of them are so much higher,” he said.

Affluent parents in the United States and around the world commonly seek
to provide their children every advantage, of course, including paying for
tutors and test preparation courses, and sometimes turning to private
schools willing to accept wealthy students despite poor grades.

But critics say China’s state-run education system — promoted as the
hallmark of Communist meritocracy — is being overrun by bribery and
cronyism. Such corruption has broadened the gulf between the haves and
have-nots as Chinese families see their hopes for the future sold to the
highest bidder.

“Corruption is pervasive in every part of Chinese society, and education
is no exception,” Mr. Li said.

It begins even before the first day of school as the competition for
admission to elite schools has created a lucrative side business for
school officials and those connected to them.

Each spring, the Clean China Kindergarten, which is affiliated with the
prestigious Tsinghua University and situated on its manicured campus in
Beijing, receives a flood of requests from parents who see enrollment
there as a conduit into one of China’s best universities. Officially, the
school is open only to children of Tsinghua faculty. But for the right
price — about 150,000 renminbi, or about $24,000, according to a staff
member who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation — a
Tsinghua professor can be persuaded to “sponsor” an applicant.

Parents with less direct connections have to bribe a chain of people for
their child to be admitted to the kindergarten. “The more removed you are
from the school, the more money you need,” the staff member said. “It can
really add up.”
A school official denied that outsiders could pay their way in.

The costs can increase as college gets closer. Chinese news media reported
recently that the going bribery rate for admission to a high school linked
to the renowned Renmin University in Beijing is $80,000 to $130,000.

Government officials have also found a way to game the system. The 21st
Century Business Herald, a state-run newspaper, reported that powerful
agencies and state-owned enterprises frequently donated to top schools
under what is known as a “joint development” policy. In exchange,
education reformers say, the children of their employees are given an
admissions advantage.

The same practice has been taken up by private companies that provide
“corporate sponsorships” to top schools.

In China, education through junior high school is mandatory, and free, but
the reality is often more complicated. As a child grows up, parents
lacking connections must pay repeatedly for better educational
opportunities. Across the country, such payments take the form of “school
choice” fees that open the door to schools outside the district or town
listed on a family’s official residency permit.

These illegal fees are especially onerous for the millions of struggling
migrant workers who have moved to distant cites. The Ministry of Education
and the State Council, China’s cabinet, have officially banned “school
choice” and other unregulated fees five times since 2005, yet school
officials and relevant government departments keep finding creative ways
around the ban, allowing them to keep the cash flowing.

At some top-ranked high schools, students with low admission test scores
can “buy” a few crucial points that put them over the threshold for
admission. According to an unwritten but widely known policy at one elite
Beijing high school, students receive an extra point for each $4,800 their
parents contribute to the school. “All my classmates know about it,” said
Polly Wang, 15, a student who asked that the school not be named to avoid
repercussion.

Surrounded by a culture where cash is king, teachers often find their own
ways to make up for their dismal salaries. Qin Liwen, a journalist who
writes about education, said that some instructors run cram schools on the
side and encourage attendance by failing to teach their students a vital
chunk of the curriculum during the school day.

“Why do something for free when everyone is paying you?” Ms. Qin said.
Faced with the prospect of their child’s missing critical material or
incurring the teacher’s wrath, many parents feel compelled to pay for
these extra courses, she said.

The culture of brown-nosing becomes a costly competition during Teacher
Appreciation Day, a national holiday in September, when students of all
ages are expected to bring gifts. Gone are the days when a floral bouquet
or fruit basket would suffice.

According to reports in the Chinese news media, many teachers now expect
to be given designer watches, expensive teas, gift cards and even
vacations. In Inner Mongolia, some parents said, more assertive teachers
welcome debit cards attached to bank accounts that can be replenished
throughout the year.

The value of such gifts, the newspaper Shanghai Daily estimated, has grown
50 times from a decade ago.

“It’s a vicious cycle,” said Ms. Zhao, the owner of the Beijing
electronics business and parent of a 10-year-old girl. “If you don’t give
a nice present and the other parents do, you’re afraid the teacher will
pay less attention to your kid.”

Poor students are the most vulnerable in this culture of bribery. Bao
Hong, 33, a maid in Beijing, used to think her 7-year-old daughter, Rui,
was having a tough time at school because she was reared in the
countryside by her grandparents. Ms. Bao now blames her teachers.

Last year, she said, a teacher slapped her daughter and called her
“stupid.” In the spring, the teacher stopped grading Rui’s homework and
then skipped a mandatory home visit. “My daughter’s discriminated against
because we don’t make much money,” Ms. Bao said, standing outside the room
she rents with her husband, a street cleaner.

Some parents have found that the only way to preserve any integrity is to
reject a Chinese education altogether. Disgusted by the endemic bribery,
Wang Ping, 37, a bar owner in Beijing, decided to send her son abroad for
his education. In August, she wept as she waved goodbye to her only child,
whom she had enrolled at a public high school in Iowa.

“China’s education system is unfair to children from the very beginning of
their lives,” she said. “I don’t want my son to have anything more to do
with it.”

Shi Da and Mia Li contributed research.