It is worth noting that young students with high school education or below account for a large proportion of the rapidly growing overseas students. According to Nanfang Daily at the beginning of this year, a survey of 1.75 million college students and their parents in Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities showed that among the 20 10 population, nearly 20%( 19.8%) of students with high school education or below went abroad to study in China. According to "20 1 1 China study abroad trend report" issued by China Education International Exchange Association, the number of high school students studying abroad accounts for 22.6% of the total number of students studying abroad in China.
According to People's Daily Online, an online survey showed that more than 50% of post-90s students said that they would choose to study abroad if conditions permit, and the College Entrance Examination (Weibo) was no longer their only choice. According to the data released by the Ministry of Education, the number of people who abandoned the national college entrance examination in 2009 reached 840,000; In 20 10 year, the number of people who abandoned the exam was close to 1 10,000, and the proportion of people who chose to abandon the exam because of studying abroad reached 2 1. 1%.
The younger age of studying abroad has also made IELTS, TOEFL and SAT (commonly known as American College Entrance Examination) popular among middle school students in China.
According to Beijing Daily, when Beijing New Oriental just started the SAT training class at the end of 2004, there were only dozens of students. In 2005, the number of students increased to 500, reaching 1000 in 2006. In 2009, this number reached nearly 5,000.
According to China Broadcasting Network, a few days ago, a new member of the TOEFL family, the TOEFL test for junior high school students aged 1 1 to 16, held its first test in Guangzhou. The original intention of junior high school students' TOEFL is to seize the China market under the background of younger students studying abroad.
Parents often have three points in their abacus to let their children study abroad at an early age: first, they are optimistic about the quality of education abroad and hope that their children can enjoy better education; Second, bypass the highly competitive college entrance examination in China and directly catch up with famous foreign universities; Third, I hope to increase the competitiveness of employment (especially returning to China for employment) after "gilding" abroad.
However, experts warn that compared with adult students, young students have more uncertain risks in studying and living abroad and returning to China for employment. The "benefits" of studying abroad at a young age may be greatly reduced.
First of all, studying abroad at a young age is generally expensive. Industry insiders estimate that primary and secondary school students need to bear all the expenses when studying abroad. Generally speaking, parents spend a total of 500,000 to 1 10,000 yuan each year. Secondly, young international students may encounter difficulties in language, study and life. The Beijing Legal Evening News quoted The New York Times as saying that a large number of China students who applied for schools through intermediaries found that once people with limited English ability started classes, it was difficult to keep up with the progress of the courses. Some professors in American universities say that they have to adjust their teaching methods to suit the courses of China students.
In the stage of basic education, there are great differences in educational systems and methods at home and abroad, and young international students will face many maladjustments when they return to China for employment. Sang Peng, president of the Beijing Association for Studying Abroad, reminded that in addition to facing the challenge of independent life, the formation of young international students' values, world outlook and morality will also be greatly affected, and parents should be more cautious in their choices.
The executive vice president of China-Canada College of Beijing University of Technology pointed out that a prominent problem in the era of mass study abroad is the blindness and arbitrariness of studying abroad. For the younger age of studying abroad, we must not blindly follow suit. Parents and children need to carefully consider the study abroad plan according to the actual situation.
Wang, vice president of Qingdao Youth Mental Health Research Association, pointed out that the main problem that young international students encounter when they go abroad is poor self-care ability. Some international students often suffer from life phobia because they can't stand on their own feet. If the language ability is poor, children will easily have psychological problems because of loneliness, which will have a negative impact on their growth.
What is more serious now is that under the influence of the global economic crisis, it is not as simple as many domestic parents think to enter a famous foreign school. Take the United States as an example According to the People's Daily, a report released by American educational institutions shows that the number of Chinese mainland students studying in the United States reached as high as 127628 in 20/kloc-0, a surge of 30% over the previous year. China has surpassed India to become the largest source of overseas students in the United States. But in contrast, the enrollment expansion of famous American universities, especially "Ivy League" universities, is extremely limited. This is bound to increase the difficulty for China students to become famous American schools.
At the same time, the "happy time" for "returnees" to find jobs in China is gradually disappearing. According to Xinhua News Agency. Com, a survey on the employability of overseas returnees released by a domestic study institution not long ago shows that the starting salary of overseas returnees is generally around 3,000 yuan. Many interviewed "returnees" said that it is more and more difficult to enter the world's top 500 and domestic scientific research institutions and large state-owned enterprises, and the salary requirements tend to be rational. According to China News Network, statistics of more than 500 samples/kloc-0 randomly selected by the World Human Resources Laboratory show that over 35% of returnees have employment difficulties, and 40% of them feel that their career direction is wrong.
At present, many study abroad agencies blindly publicize the benefits of studying abroad from their own commercial interests, regardless of the specific situation of students, and "hard sell" students abroad. At present, many foreign "diploma workshops" even aim at China students to cheat money. International students and parents should be more cautious, and the diplomas obtained by children who have traveled overseas for several years are not even recognized.