Shenzhen is set to be China’s new model city, so why are parents losing sleep over their children’s education?

Only 35,000 students out of a total of nearly 80,000 were accepted into local public secondary schools last year for education between the ages of 16-18

Beijing’s new ambitious plan is to turn the home of the likes of Huawei, Tencent and DJI into a model city by 2035

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Shenzhen has only 344 primary schools, well below the 961 primary schools in Guangzhou, which has a comparable population of 15 million. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 7:00am, 29 Aug 2019Updated: 3:52pm, 29 Aug 2019

Alice Xu’s worries about the education prospects of her nine-year-old daughter have caused sleepless nights over the last few days, and got so bad that the Shenzhen resident took herself to the doctors after hearing that fewer than half the children in the city are admitted to public secondary schools after completing the nine years of compulsory education.

“The doctor told me I’m not alone and that he had seen many patients like me who are anxious,” said Xu, who herself is a middle school teacher, teaching children aged between 14-16.

Her experience, and the experiences of other middle-class parents in China’s hi-tech capital threatens to tarnish Beijing’s plan to turn Shenzhen into a model city by 2035.

Xu moved to Shenzhen in 2005 as a young graduate, and has enjoyed the prosperity offered by the city’s rise. She now earns around 200,000 yuan (US$28,000) a year. Like many other citizens, she has always put her daughter’s education at the top of her priority list, given the common understanding that it is the only way to move up the social ladder in a highly competitive Chinese society. That meant paying 720 yuan (US$101) per hour for a one-on-one maths tutor for her daughter.

But despite her best efforts, the reality is that her daughter has more than a 50 per cent chance of failing to gain entry into an affordable and good-quality public school between the ages of 16-18 after completing her mandatory education.

“[We can only] talk and share the worries and depression anywhere and anytime,” she said, echoing the feelings of many helpless parents.

According to official data, only 35,000 students in Shenzhen out of a total of nearly 80,000 were accepted into local public secondary schools last year for education from 16-18, putting them on a path that would allow them to take the rigorous gaokao college entrance exam.