Over 60% students attend after-school tutoring

More than 60 percent of Chinese children are taking extracurricular classes and 85 percent of parents pay attention to children's after-school activities, according to a recent survey.

The survey, conducted by research institution China National Children's Center, involved 14,874 children aged between 3 and 15 from kindergarten to middle school. Respondents were spread across urban and rural areas in 10 cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Guangdong province and Duyun, Guizhou province.

According to the report, children in China spend 3.4 hours in total on private tutoring classes during weekday and another 3.2 hours on the weekend after the school day ends.

It costs 9,211 yuan ($1,305) - 12.84 percent of the family income – on average in child's after-school tutoring a year, according to the report.

For the purpose of after-school tutoring, 44.39 percent of children and their parents said they want to secure a higher score in exam; 32.83 percent said they want to have a good command of knowledge and 21 percent to master learning methods.

In terms of the ways of taking private tutoring classes, face-to-face teaching and learning is still the mainstream with a share of 71.85 percent while the children who take online courses only account for 3.86 percent. 24.29 percent of respondents combine the two ways.

Education pattern at school has largely extended to and exerted considerable influence on children's after school hours, the report concluded on the basis of the findings above.