China needs more creative input in education

Money should not be an issue when it comes to offering children a wider choice of activities

Like many parents, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde took their children to schools on the first day of the new semester in Belgium, and I posted the photos of them doing so on my social media accounts in China, attracting many comments.

Many said unselfish parental love and care for children is deeply rooted in the hearts of every parent; some focused on the long history of the school, St. John Berchmans College in Brussels, which several members of Belgium's royal family have attended and which can trace its history back to 1604.

For my part, I think the royal couple was delivering a strong message that education is essential for the future success of every Belgian child, and family participation in their education is vital.

Belgium is among the best of the developed countries when it comes to education. It offers 12 years of compulsory education for its citizens, and financial aid for children from poor families can easily be obtained for higher education. With a lot of facilities and training centers, a lifelong learning network has been established.

Ample access to education opportunities, higher social status and salaries, and strong fiscal inputs have helped boost the professionalism and devotion of teachers at various levels.

In China, education has helped offer tremendous opportunities for millions of people to climb the social ladder. But at the same time, the country's education is often criticized for many reasons.

For example, in cities it is difficult to find places in the best schools without money or connections; students have long shouldered too much unnecessary extracurricular work; and some teachers lack a professional spirit and devote themselves to earning more money by offering after-school classes.

In rural regions there are not enough schools and facilities, and children from poor families are prone to be left behind.

This is in sharp contrast to the situation in Belgium, where education, generally speaking, is not tied to a high price tag, and for many families it costs nearly nothing.

Some may say China's per capita income still stands at around $7,000 while that of Belgium is six times more, so it is foolish to compare the two countries. But this is a false argument.

China should not wait until it becomes a high-income economy before it starts to invest heavily in education. Instead, increasing the investment and ensuring there is a well-educated workforce would speed up China's process of becoming a higher-income country.

China has started to design its new five-year development roadmap for 2016 to 2020, and it should include expanding the length of its compulsory education from nine to 12 years. The country's fiscal strength provides the ability to do this.

Second, the country should offer facilities and teachers to satisfy the growing demand for extracurricular classes. In Belgium, local governments offer long lists of after-school choices that children can tailor to their interests and hobbies, and these are not necessarily offered by their own schools.

In China, piano or violin lessons, for example, are expensive, while in Belgium, they cost nearly nothing. If the Chinese government offered such public services free of charge or at very low cost, it would not only help Chinese families, it would also create more job opportunities for teachers.

At the same time, the government should invest in the creation of more facilities, such as art centers, swimming pools, theaters and cinemas. China has up to 20,000 towns, and at least half of them provide no access to such facilities and are short of teachers and coaches.

While the king and the queen of Belgium were with their children on Sept 1, many migrant parents in China could not accompany their own youngsters to school. I hope this will be a thing of the past when the students of today take their children to school.

The author is chief correspondent of China Daily based in Brussels. Contact the writer at fujing@chinadaily.com.cn