Rising fees and even guarantees at cram schools

Rising fees for cram schools, where students prepare to retake the gaokao, or national college entrance exam, have caught the attention of educators and parents.

According to a recent Beijing Youth Daily report, fees for attending Jinghua School, a leading cram school in Beijing, have reached almost 100,000 yuan ($16,277). At Longmen Yucai School, another well-known cram school, fees have risen to 200,000 yuan per student.

A Longmen staff member, who requested anonymity, said the 200,000-yuan fee is only for a class of "special students" who signed contracts with the school.

In that contract, the school guarantees that students will achieve a certain result after taking the course for a full year, or the school will refund the fees, the staff member said.

"In order to ensure the success of the students, we have to select our candidates carefully by talking to students and their parents face to face, to find out whether the students are suitable for the class," the staffer said.

"It's a class of boarders and our teachers give one-on-one guidance to the students to ensure they make great progress in their second gaokao and achieve the goal they set."

The staffer declined to disclose further details about the teaching that costs almost 10 times as much as fees charged by other gaokao cram schools.

A teacher at Mingshitang School, who asked to be identified only by her surname, Ai, said giving guarantees does not ensure anything.

"Many of the students of parents who spent 200,000 yuan on special training didn't get the results they wanted," said Ai, who has worked at Mingshitang, another well-known gaokao cram school in Beijing, for eight years.

"Whether students get a good score in the gaokao depends mainly on themselves, rather than the teachers or the cram school," she added.

In addition to these special cases, fees have increased for most cram schools.

Jinghua School, a cram school in Haidian district recognized as having top-class education resources and one of the highest education standards in Beijing, has raised its fees to more than 90,000 yuan from 60,000 yuan.

Zhai Lianjie, a recruitment officer for Jinghua, said that most of the fee increase went to the teachers.

"Teachers get pay raises so they can better help students improve their study methods," Zhai said, adding that despite rising expenses, the number of students Jinghua recruited this year was around 1,200, about the same as last year.

"Parents are willing to pay for better service," he said.

Liu Chengze, a Beijing resident whose son failed to gain admission to his first-choice university because of low marks in the gaokao, is considering sending him to a cram school but said parents should know what they can afford.

zhaoxinying@chinadaily.com.cn