52 percent of Chinese kids under 12 attend extra classes on weekends: Survey

A survey undertaken by the market research firm, Horizonkey, has found that 52 percent of Chinese kids under the age of twelve attend extra classes on the weekend, apart from doing their school homework

New Delhi, June 5 : A survey undertaken by the market research firm, Horizonkey, has found that 52 percent of Chinese kids under the age of twelve attend extra classes on the weekend, apart from doing their school homework

As result, most of these children say they feel tired and exhausted after their education-related ordeal.

Take for example, eight-year-old Ping Ping, a student of a Beijing school, who says that she doesn't finish her homework before 10 p.m. each night, and has since the age of four, been taking extra courses at the weekend.

A typical weekend schedule might include piano and painting lessons on Saturday and Sunday morning, followed by an extracurricular English class and Chinese calligraphy in the afternoon.

The survey targetted over 1,400 families with children aged four to 12 in eight cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Xi'an.

Zhang Hui, a researcher with Horizenkey, said: "Slightly older children tend to be the busiest as their parents are eager to cram more knowledge into them in the hope they will be accepted at a good middle school."

The survey found that about 62 percent of children aged 10-12 took additional classes, such as English, math, music, art, dance and martial arts.

However, only 10 percent of the children said they enjoyed the extra lessons, it said.

The survey, according to The China Daily, found that families spent an average of 200 yuan (26 dollars) a month on extra classes, which represented between two and 10 percent of their total monthly income.

Most Chinese children stay at school for nine hours a day, Monday to Friday - more time than most adults spend at work in a week.

Despite requests from the Ministry of Education for parents to stop enrolling their children in extracurricular courses and requesting schools to limit homework to one hour a night, the problem of too much work remains.

ANI