A new trend in China?

Many Chinese families see Thailand as a place where their children can receive a quality education at international schools with a less demanding curriculum.

Many Chinese parents want to move their families to Southeast Asian countries to ease the academic pressure on their children. (Source: Global Times)

According to Jenson Zhang, the managing director of Vision Education, an educational consulting firm that serves parents seeking to settle in Southeast Asia, many middle-class families in the country choose Thailand because of its lower tuition fees compared to private schools in Beijing and Shanghai.

"The cost of living in Southeast Asia is reasonable, visas are easy to obtain, and the living environment and people's attitudes towards Chinese people make parents feel safe here," Mr. Zhang said.

A 2023 survey conducted by the private education company New Oriental showed that Chinese families are increasingly considering Singapore and Japan as study abroad destinations for their children. However, tuition fees and the cost of living in these two countries are significantly higher than in Thailand.

In Thailand, cities with a peaceful pace of life like Chiang Mai are always top choices. Pattaya and Phuket are also popular destinations alongside Bangkok, but they have a higher cost of living. This trend has been ongoing for the past decade and has become even more pronounced in recent years.

Lanna International School, one of the schools with high admission standards in Chiang Mai, saw a surge in interest during the 2022-2023 school year, with the number of people requesting information about the school doubling compared to the previous year.

Grace Hu, an admissions officer at Lanna School, said that Chinese parents are in a hurry to transfer their children to new learning environments due to restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Vision Education, parents who want to send their children to Chiang Mai for schooling fall into two groups: those who have already planned their children's educational path and those who are struggling with China's highly competitive education system. The latter group usually makes up the majority.

In Chinese society, parents place such importance on education that many are willing to quit their jobs and rent homes near schools to care for their children. These people are often referred to as "schoolmates," and a child's academic achievement sometimes comes at the cost of the parents' lives.

A prevailing reality in modern Chinese society is that success is defined by graduating from a prestigious university. With limited admissions, class rankings and grades are paramount, especially the results achieved in the rigorous university entrance examination, commonly known as the Gaokao.

In Chiang Mai, education allows students time to develop their interests.

Jiang Wenhui moved from Shanghai to Chiang Mai in 2023. While still in China, she seemed to have accepted that her son, Rodney, only achieved average grades due to mild attention deficit disorder. She devoted all her time to closely monitoring her son's progress, helping him keep up with his studies, attend extra classes, and maintain his position in the class.

In Thailand, Rodney chose to play guitar and piano alongside studying English. This gradually gave him time to pursue his hobbies and eliminated the need for treatment for his attention deficit disorder.

Mr. Wang, another parent who also sent his child to study in Chiang Mai, said he had changed his views on education and now believes that success is not reflected in grades.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/dua-con-toi-thai-lan-hoc-tap-xu-huong-moi-o-trung-quoc-285096.html