millionaires
Local schooling is getting pricey, too
A few weeks ago we pointed out how average tuition at international schools in Beijing has risen to the equivalent of over USD 35,000 a year. But don't think that it's just expat schooling that's getting pricier in China's burgeoning capital -- local parents are shelling out big time as well.
In what amounts to be an openly accepted (but officially frowned upon) custom, local parents are now paying up to RMB 87,000 (USD 13,600) in "entrance fees" to place their children in selective middle schools outside their local schooling district.
Half of China’s under-40 billionaires studied overseas; 80% want the same for their kids
Which comes first, the money or the overseas education?
The Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Report has an interesting stat distilled from the just-released list of the young and the wealthy by Hurun, China’s well-known compiler of the who’s who of the moneyed set: half of all of China’s under-40 billionaires studied overseas, and 80% want the same for their kids.
The WSJ’s Laurie Burkitt remarks that the combination of wealth and the age-old criticisms of Chinese schooling – too much memorization, not enough critical thinking – are to blame for this seemingly disproportionate exodus of the upper crust towards overseas education:
