Tuition fees are a harsh lesson for parents

Calligraphy is among the most popular tuition courses in China. Others include Go, dancing and English.Wang Biao / For China Daily

More retrospection

Ora Kwo, a professor of education at the University of Hong Kong, has researched private tutoring for years.

She said Chinese people's passion for private tutoring is not isolated. Other Asian countries, particularly South Korea, have also witnessed the phenomenon. It's also quite established in South Asian countries and has gained increasing popularity in Europe, the Americas and Africa. She added that families with high incomes able to provide children with private tuition are setting the trend, making parents of middle-and-low incomes feel they have to do the same.

"Private tutoring has profound influences on the equity of education at public schools, which should arouse people's attention," Kwo said.

She said this requires an in-depth look at the situation to cover many areas, including the balance between private tutoring and teaching at public schools, the quality of public schools, approaches to learning and teaching as well as the attitude of students.