Excellent article by Neil Aronas in China Daily, which is also a good introduction to China’s high-end (in terms of $$$) private schools. I personally find this trend extremely troubling, and not just because of the issues identified by Aronas.

Here’s the background:

A new crop of Chinese private high schools is reconceiving the “passport” school as the “checkbook” school, opening Western-style education to those who can pay.

These private schools draw on the aristocratic style of Eton and Andover, but they stop at style.

Eton, founded in 1440, is a nonprofit. Etonkids, an international kindergarten backed by venture capital firm Sequoia China, is not.

Andover is “need-blind,” meaning it admits its students solely on merit, and grants scholarships to those who cannot afford tuition.

International schools in China offer none. Some criticize China’s international schools as a “merit-blind” playground for the wealthy.

Although he never spells it out clearly, Aronas clearly believes that a “need-blind” approach is the way to go, and that setting up top schools for rich kids is a very bad idea. He also thinks that some of these kids who study abroad for many years will end up between two cultures and unable to compete at the same level with their counterparts either in China or abroad.

The whole idea of a private school for rich kids called “Etonkids” makes my stomach turn in the same way that I react to so many other “high-end products” that have been rolled out here in China over the past few years to take advantage of the growing wealthy class. Quality is secondary to a high price and a famous name.

This is very bad for society. I don’t want to revisit the whole kindergarten killings issue again, but let’s not forget that class resentment was discussed as a possible motivating factor in several of those incidents. Cheesy, pretentious automobile brands, housing complexes, and now international style schools, are moving the country in the wrong direction.

China’s population policy has unintentionally spawned a generation of “Little Emperors” who are insufferable, arrogant pricks. Put them in one of these schools for ten years with their rich peers, and the end result will probably not be something we should be unleashing on society. The very thought is frightening.