Education

First steps most important

By Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-23 10:51

A teacher takes her young student on a "boat" trip at Kikibaby education center. Courtesy of Kikibaby

If you start to cultivate your child on the third day of his or her birth, you are already two days too late.

With this in mind, hundreds of thousands of young and affluent Chinese parents are going to early education centers to develop their children's intelligence, triggering the development of the early education market.

There are primarily two types of early education - or pre-kindergarten education - in Beijing, said market specialist Zhao Kun.

The first is similar to kindergarten, except the participants are younger: dozens of children from babies to three-year-olds gather to carry out activities, have fun and explore their potential under the guidance of one or two teachers.

The second type provides babysitting plus private tutorials. A teacher will visit his or her client's home and design tailor-made educational methods in accordance with the development of the child.

Zhao, who has been in the business for more than five years, told METRO there were less than 20 professional early education centers in Beijing last year and the figure is expected to hit 30 this year due to the huge market demand.

"The demand is significant. I received scores of phone calls requiring information about early education the first day after the Spring Festival break," she said.

Kikibaby, the early education center Zhao works at is planning to expand from 200 students to 300 this year.

A report from Sohu.com shows that 20 percent of under sixes in Beijing take part in early education activities, and the figure is 14 percent for children below the age of three. There are around 650,000 children below the age of six in Beijing.

Li Na, 30, who has sent her daughter to an early education center twice a week ever since she was four months old, believes early education is a real benefit to children. The price of each class is 80 yuan.

"If my daughter's intelligence develops very early, she can become smarter in future competition," she said in an interview with Xinhuanet.com, adding that children have to take exams to be admitted to kindergarten.

Zhao said the content of every class at Kikibaby includes language, physical and body balance development. The price is 180 yuan per hour, a course includes 48 classes.

Most customers are well-educated parents in business, politics and entertainment sectors.

Meng Qian, a member of the China Family Education Council said early education strengthens communication between children and adults and broadens children's horizons. It is conducive for children's creativity development and helps them to better comprehend the world.

"Early education teachers are there to encourage children to develop their potential abilities, Zhao said.

"Parents nowadays become too 'understandable', a glance or a gesture can lead a child to get what he or she wants instead of vocal expression which is not conducive for the development of their language ability," Zhao said.