Chinese children miss out on winter holiday as parents send them back to class
- Manager of private tuition centre in eastern city of Hangzhou says demand from parents has been ‘overwhelming’
While most schoolchildren in the east China city of Hangzhou spent last week’s Lunar New Year holiday visiting relatives and opening cash-filled red envelopes, others found themselves taking extra lessons at a privately run tuition centre.
The manager of the company, surnamed Wong, said business had been brisk over the holiday period.
“Usually students have a week’s break for Lunar New Year, but not those who are sitting the gaokao,” he said, using the informal name for the National Higher Education Entrance Examination.
Demand for extra tuition from parents whose children were preparing for the test had been “overwhelming”, he said.
The cost of lessons during the holiday period was 250 yuan (US$37) per hour, Wong said, adding that most students had four lessons a day.
Chinese schoolchildren get a month’s holiday in the winter, which incorporates the national Lunar New Year break.
Wong’s centre does not just cater for older children. According to a report by local newspaper Metro Express, a woman surnamed Lu paid for her son, who goes to primary school, to have extra lessons in mathematics and science.
