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He Huifeng

China’s upper-middle-class families are spending more on their children’s local education to help them compete in a tight domestic job market at the expense of summer programmes aimed at gaining admission to foreign universities, a recent survey found.
A survey of 277 affluent Chinese families by Babazhenbang, a parenting and education platform with a database covering hundreds of schools preparing students for overseas study, found that 84.5 per cent of families paid for subject-specific tutoring during the July–August public school holiday, up from 80.7 per cent last year.
The share of families spending more than 60,000 yuan (US$7,653) over the break doubled to 9.4 per cent, Babazhenbang found. It said maths, English and tutoring on preparing for exams remained the top choices, with average spending of 24,000 yuan.
An emphasis on getting children ready for work in China reflected a tough domestic job market along with thinning interest in overseas education, analysts said.
“Families that have given up the international route are putting the money into domestic tutoring instead,” said Kent Cai, founder of Zhejiang Newway, an international education consultancy. “Once they switch to the domestic education track, competition becomes even more intense, so parents are willing to spend more on tutoring to increase their sense of certainty.”
Babazhenbang’s survey found that average spending on summer break education programmes fell to a three-year low of 61,100 yuan this year, from 69,000 yuan last year.
The share of families spending more than 100,000 yuan on those activities was 12.5 per cent, similar to last year but sharply below 39.4 per cent in 2024 and 26.7 per cent in 2023. The survey also found also that 15.5 per cent of the families had spent less than 10,000 yuan on their children’s summer programmes, the highest proportion in recent years.
The percentage of children who travelled overseas during the summer fell from 28.2 per cent last year to 19.8 per cent. Four per cent of families spent more than 60,000 yuan on overseas summer camps this year, down from 7.4 per cent last year.
Summer programmes often correlate with family ambitions to send children abroad for university education, but just 570,600 students went abroad last year, down from a peak of 703,500 in 2019, according to Ministry of Education data.
Chen Zhiwen, a member of the Chinese Society of Educational Development Strategy, a Beijing-based education research organisation, said he expected the decline to continue, though not in a “cliff-like” fashion.
Chen said tighter Western visa restrictions, geopolitical tensions and the improving quality of China’s universities were reasons for families to shift direction. Younger Chinese, he added, had grown up with greater confidence in their own country, making them less likely to view studying abroad as inherently more attractive.
International and bilingual schools in the Yangtze River Delta, including those in Shanghai, were also finding recruitment harder, said Kent Cai, founder of Zhejiang Newway, an international education consultancy.
He said “expensive” summer programmes for pre-university students in Europe and the United States were also losing appeal among Chinese parents.
While families on the international track still outspent their domestic-focused peers this summer – averaging 78,600 yuan compared with 43,600 yuan – Babazhenbang’s survey found the gap was narrowing as parents rethought education priorities.
Children from the surveyed families, mostly from China’s major cities, were concentrated in their middle or high school years. Nearly 60 per cent were pursuing international education in China with the rest in the domestic education system.


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Survey finds that percentage of children who travelled overseas during summer break fell this year


Survey finds that percentage of children who travelled overseas during summer break fell this year.


Focus on jobs sees affluent Chinese families spend more on tutoring than overseas exposure

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Survey finds that percentage of children who travelled overseas during summer break fell this year

Survey finds that percentage of children who travelled overseas during summer break fell this year