【有文稿】家长想让学校开补习班，孩子想吗？

Lincoln: In China, a group from Hebei province have petitioned with joint signatures against a ban on paid extra-curricular classes. Wu You, what exactly is the story here? WY: First of all, [the] Ministry of Education in China has announced a new regulation that bans any paid make-up classes, or the so-called extra-curricular classes in China. We need to know a little bit about what the extra-curricular classes [are], because in China, we all know the very important examination is the college entrance examination, or Gaokao, and that is a very important period of time for senior high school, and that is the three years before college, which is grade 9 to grade 12 in the US, and that is when a lot of schools will give this kind of extra-curricular classes, when students need to pay, and usually it was held by the school itself. And then, students and parents, some of them, they are not happy about this, and they are saying students are under a lot of burden and pressure – they are lacking [in] exercising time, and their own leisure time. And then we can see all these kinds of classes, they were taking place every day after 6pm to 9pm, and also on Saturday, so that means students got less time of their own. And then they have been protesting about this, and finally the Ministry of Education has announced a regulation banning all these kinds of extra classes. But in Hubei, this time, some parents are petitioning to the local education department, with all their signatures, against the ban. They were saying it is not fair if some of the students are banned from taking this kind of make-up classes, and some of the students are not. They were saying it is not fair to their kids, because if you want to ban this kind of policy, everyone else shouldn’t be taking these classes. You couldn’t ban some of them for taking this when someone else is not. Michael: So, essentially, you’ve got some kids who, actually, are complaining that they’re not allowed to study any more… (WY: Yes) ..even though this policy is arguably for their own benefit, in order to give them, you know, a better work-life balance, or more time for exercise. A lot of them seem to think, “Well, actually, I want to do these extra classes, because I feel like I’ll get left behind if everyone else is doing them, and I’m not,” which I find quite extraordinary. Lincoln: Wu You, so what we have here is, who decided exactly to ban these extra-curricular classes? WY: The Ministry of Education in China. Lincoln: So we’re talking about the big national ministry? (WY: Yes) So what has the response been from the rest of the country? WY: Some of them are for it, some of them are against it. (Lincoln: OK) Because there has been a mixed feeling about this, because some of the parents were saying the students should have lots of leisure time, but others were arguing that if the final college entrance examination still exists, this kind of banning doesn’t make sense, because after all, the students need to get to that final examination. The only thing that they can do is just to study hard. Michael: Well, we know that the Chinese education system is notoriously competitive, you know, students will have very long school days, so it seems like this is a measure introduced by the Ministry of Education to protect the children, protect them from themselves, if you like, so that they’re not working too hard. But it seems to me that you have students themselves who want to take these extra classes, you have parents who want their kids to take these extra classes, the schools themselves are happy to put the extra classes on, and its only the Ministry itself - the big, over-arching education monitor in China - that’s actually saying, “No, you can’t do this”. But I think, you know, people will find a way. If people want to study this badly, I’m sure they will find a way to do so. Lincoln: And what is at stake here, Wu You, if schools get caught actually offering extra-curricular classes? WY: If violated, the school involved will be stripped of any honours or titles, so that is the punishment.