Kids must enjoy school without any terms

Students will be back to school or college in China as well as Western countries very soon. Children's education has become an expensive affair in developed economies and has been partly responsible for small families, often with a single child, in the West. Even in China, despite the lifting of the one-child policy, not many couples will have a second child partly because of the rising cost of education.

Actually, the cost of educating even a single child has increased over the past couple of decades. School policies traditionally encourage a sense of community. The school uniform itself is supposed to inculcate students with a sense of equality regardless of the economic background of their parents - no designer uniforms or smart suits on display.

In my country, Britain, we can still see "back to school" signs on store windows with affordable notebooks (traditional paper ones), pens, rulers and other basics. But the school bags that these items are carried in are more likely to reflect designer trends and be very expensive.