Since leaving China’s gruelling public school system, 14-year-old Estella spends her weekdays studying Spanish, rock climbing or learning acupuncture in her living room as part of her home-schooling.
Her parents withdrew her from her school in Shanghai three years ago. They worried she was struggling to keep up with a demanding curriculum that they believe will soon become outdated as artificial intelligence (AI) progresses.
Estella’s parents are among a small number in China who are rethinking the country’s rigorous education system. School days can last 10 hours, with students often working late into the evening on extra tutoring and homework.
“In the future, education models and jobs will face huge changes due to AI,” Estella’s mother, Xu Zoe, said, using a pseudonym. “We wanted to get used to the uncertainty early.”
Home-schooling is banned in China, although authorities generally overlook rare individual cases.
Just 6,000 Chinese children were home-schooled in 2017, according to the non-profit 21st Century Education Research Institute. By comparison, China had roughly 145 million primary and middle school students that year. But the number of homeschoolers had increased annually by around 30 per cent from 2013, the institute said.
Supporters say looser schedules centred around practical projects and outdoor activities help nourish creativity that is squashed by the national curriculum.
In Shanghai, Estella’s school day ended at 5pm, and she often spent around four hours a night on homework.
“Instead of just doing a stressful exam in school, I will do the things I am interested [in],” Estella said. Unlike many students her age, she will not be cramming for secondary school entrance exams.
Her parents have hired tutors in science, maths, Spanish and physical education. Together with Estella, they decide her schedule. On a Tuesday afternoon, she was the youngest at a nearby climbing gym, hoisting herself up the wall after a day of online Spanish studies from her living room and an acupuncture lesson taught by her mother.
Xu, 40, said her daughter has grown more confident since leaving the highly competitive public school system.
“We don’t use societal standards to evaluate ourselves but rather what kind of person we want to be,” she said.
Experts say Chinese people are increasingly questioning the value of the traditionally prestigious degrees from elite universities amid an oversaturated market.
In 2023, fewer than one in five undergraduates from Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University found jobs immediately after graduation.
The country’s unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 24 reached a two-year high of 18.9 per cent in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
“[China] has outproduced. Too many PhDs, too many Masters, too many undergraduates. The jobs they are trying to get are disappearing,” Yong Zhao, an author on China’s education system, said.
Chinese authorities have tried to counter the competitive learning culture by cracking down on cram schools in recent years – but tutoring, paid under the table, remains in demand.
While home-schooling is technically illegal, Zhao said families can generally “get away with it without causing too much attention”.
One mother in Zhejiang province, who wished to remain unidentified for fear of repercussions, said she used an AI chatbot to create a lesson plan on recycling for her nine-year-old home-schooled son.
“The development of AI has allowed me to say that what you learn in a classroom, you don’t need any more,” she said.
Her son studies Chinese and maths using coursework from his former public school in the mornings. He spends his afternoons working on projects or on outdoor activities. However, his mother, a former teacher, plans to re-enrol her son when he reaches lower secondary school.
“There’s no way to meet his social needs at home,” she said.
When 24-year-old Gong Yimei’s father pulled her out of school at age eight to focus on art, she lost out on spending time with children her own age. She studied on her own with a few teachers, and most of the people she called friends were twice her age.
But at home, Gong said she had more free time to consider her future.
“You ask yourself, ‘What do I like? What do I want? What is the meaning of the things I do’?” Gong said. “It helped me more quickly find myself.”
Back in Shanghai, university is an uncertainty for Estella. Her family plans to spend time in Europe or South America to improve her Spanish.
Her mother, Xu, is hopeful that home-schooling may become more mainstream in China. Xu said she would encourage other parents considering it to take the leap.
“You don’t need to be afraid,” she said.
