More high school students in Beijing are being enrolled in special courses to prepare them for study at overseas universities.

City schools have introduced first-year classes for teenagers who plan to skip the gaokao (national college entrance examination) and head abroad.

Roughly 500 parents flocked to Beijing No 4 High School last Saturday to discuss a new three-year course that will prepare children to apply for institutions in the United States and Canada, as well as other countries. Just 60 students will be able to enroll.

Related readings:  More students choose to study abroad  Study abroad? Do your homework first  High school graduates attracted to study abroad

Joint curriculum programs for first-year students are also being run at schools affiliated with Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University and Peking University. Tuition fees range from 80,000 to 100,000 yuan per year, while lessons, staffing and training models are designed to cover international standards and Chinese characteristics.

"The specialized classes not only benefit the students' chances of admission to overseas universities, but also helps them adapt to life abroad," an unnamed high school teacher told Beijing Morning News.

Many parents are also backing the introduction of the classes. Yang, who has a child at a school in Xicheng district, was quoted in the same article as saying: "In the future, it'll be internationalized talents that be the most competitive, so it's necessary to make preparations in advance."

Although critics of the classes claim they will lead to a "brain drain" due to too many young talents heading abroad, Gu Xin, a professor at Peking University's school of government, dismissed the concerns.

"If parents are willing to send kids abroad, is there any need for the government to put forward a regulation to stop them?" he asked. "Even if the kids are too young, it's their parents who are responsible for them."

About 76,000 Beijing students will sit this year's gaokao. It is the fifth year in a row that numbers have fallen, with 2011 marking the lowest ever attendance.