BBC on Education Fever in Asia

Parent Cafe
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<p>Accidental post 10char</p>

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<p>Of course China (the PRC) now has the 4-2-1 phenomenon, due to the “one child” policy. Four grandparents and two parents may be too much for one person employed at a typical pay level to easily support (along with his/her own kid, if any). So that may increase the pressure on getting a high pay job, and if getting those means going to a high prestige university, which means scoring high on the gaokao…</p>

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<p>^^^ The PRC has the “one child” policy (Birth Rate =1.6), but education cost is likely a factor (one factor out of many) in the low birth rates in other Asian countries. </p>

<p>(South Korea Birth Rate = 1.2)</p>

<p>[Low</a> South Korean birth rate raises fears - FT.com](<a href=“Subscribe to read | Financial Times”>Subscribe to read | Financial Times)</p>

<p>“Forced to decide between giving her daughter siblings or an expensive education, Hong Sung-ok saw little choice.”</p>

<p>Japan Birth Rate = 1.39</p>

<p>[Birthrate</a> - The Japan Daily Press](<a href=“オンラインカジノ 比較 - Casino Sensei - japandailypress.com”>オンラインカジノ 比較 - Casino Sensei - japandailypress.com)</p>

<p>Singapore Birth Rate = 1.29</p>

<p>[Singapore’s</a> Lee says not to blame for low birth rate](<a href=“Singapore's Lee says not to blame for low birth rate”>Singapore's Lee says not to blame for low birth rate)</p>

<p>(The above article gets bonus points for “smack talking” Japan…)</p>

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<p>A paper by two scholars at UPenn…</p>

<p>Education Fever and the East Asian Fertility Puzzle:
A Case Study of Low Fertility in South Korea</p>

<p><a href=“http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=psc_working_papers[/url]”>http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1037&context=psc_working_papers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>(more bonus points…as Singapore this time “smack talks” Korea…)</p>

<p>The article also quotes the Singaporean Education Minister, who when asked about Singapore’s reliance on private education last year, responded optimistically that “We’re not as bad as the Koreans”</p>

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<p>Does abandoning an infant girl on a public sidewalk count as “education fever”? (It is a mistake to lump all Asian cultures together.)</p>

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<p>“Ending Exam or Suicide Season in Vietnam”</p>

<p><a href=“Ending Vietnam's 'Suicide Season' - The New York Times”>Ending Vietnam's 'Suicide Season' - The New York Times;

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<p>Glido,</p>

<p>People all over the world abandon children in safe places. Here’s a Time magazine article on what happened in Nebraska when the state allowed abandonment.</p>

<p>[The</a> Abandoned Children of Nebraska - TIME](<a href=“http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1859405,00.html]The”>The Abandoned Children of Nebraska - TIME)</p>

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<p>Is this Asian education phenomenon entirely bad? Don’t get me wrong I certainly think there are negative effects on a personal level for the students and their parents. If over-populated industrializing (eg. China) or newly industrialized (eg. South Korea- it may be the most technologically advanced country on earth now, but just half a century ago it was one of the most impoverished places on earth) are choosing to have fewer children and and therefore to spend more money educating that one child then say have many children who are not well educated (ie. see the population explosion in Africa, and also the low literacy rates in many African nations). Isn’t it a good thing that some of these countries are taking the “quality over quantity” approach to raising a family?</p>

<p>Again not to discount the hardship some of these students and their families face, and I think we can all agree that the hyper-competition in some of these countries could use a little tempering.</p>

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<p>In the PRC’s case, educational cost has only been a factor since the very end of the '90s as before that, college was completely free for anyone who qualified for admission. </p>

<p>Moreover, in the PRC after that period to the present and other countries like the ROC(Taiwan), South Korea, and Japan, tuition costs are still much lower than the US, especially for the elite public colleges. </p>

<p>Especially considering unlike here in the US, the popular perception in those countries regarding public or private is completely reversed. It’s the publicly run colleges which tend to be regarded as most elite/respectable whereas with a tiny few exceptions, it’s the private colleges which are regarded with skepticism for academic quality/prestige. </p>

<p>For instance, the current annual tuition for undergrads at UTokyo is around $5,500 per year according to here: [The</a> University of Tokyo [Admission Information] Enrollment fee and tuition](<a href=“http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/stu04/e03_e.html]The”>http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/stu04/e03_e.html)</p>

<p>However, competition to get into the most elite and mostly public colleges is so exceedingly difficult that most students who end up at lower ranking institutions WILL have to pay more in tuition as the institutions who will admit students at this level are more likely to be more expensive private universities. </p>

<p>This is a factor in why few parents from such societies would be likely to allow their kids to come to the US or go abroad to other undergrad programs if they were admitted to an elite public university, especially those in Japan. This is due to the much low tuition costs and common expectations that the “proper path” is to do one’s undergrad in most such countries…especially in Japan’s case, preferably at the most elite institutions like UTokyo and then go abroad to other countries like the US for grad school. </p>

<p>The sky-high tuition even for many US state universities would mean the cost-benefit analysis to such parents is rendered nonsensical from their perspective. </p>

<p>Most of the students going abroad are ones where the parents are wealthy and found their kids failed to make it into the elite public or the tiny handful of elite private colleges and/or those who opt out of the national college exam centered college admission process altogether. This aspect is what’s driving the fear about costs as competition to get into the top and less expensive public colleges is much more keen than to get into most private and more expensive colleges in the lower-tiers of their higher ed system.</p>

<p>Incidentally, the comparatively bargain tuition prices at the elite publics in East Asia combined with the much easier admission process for international students/“overseas descendants/nationals” means a few US-born or immigrants from my high school did end up doing their undergrad there. </p>

<p>One HS classmate ended up going to National Taiwan U to study engineering for this very reason. He and several others like him from extended family/friends mentioned the exam they took was far easier and graded much more leniently than for domestic students admitted under the national college entrance exam system. Main hurdles for American students is to be fully fluent in Mandarin or national language of instruction for other countries and if doing STEM, ensuring their math/science skills are on par with domestic students.</p>

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<p>The Economist had some recent articles about education in the Republic of Korea. Included is a [chart[/url</a>] indicating that the percentage of high school graduates entering university has declined over the last few years (though from about 84% to about 70%).</p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“The Economist | World News, Economics, Politics, Business & Finance”&gt;The other arms race]Education:</a> The other arms race | The Economist](<a href=“http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/original-size/images/print-edition/20131026_SRC451.png]chart[/url”>http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/original-size/images/print-edition/20131026_SRC451.png)
[South</a> Korea?s education system: The great decompression | The Economist](<a href=“The Economist | World News, Economics, Politics, Business & Finance”>The great decompression)</p>