Education is like the rabbit-tortoise race

A mother recently posted on the internet a long list of expensive extracurricular classes for her child, including 12,000 yuan ($1,786) a year for English, 14,000 yuan for logic and mathematic, 7,000 yuan for dancing, 11,000 yuan for photography and 6,000 yuan for drawing, and complained that she is not raising a child, but a money burner.

Extracurricular classes for students are not a new topic. Still, they end up fraying public nerves whenever they come up in discussions, which is surprising because parents are free to provide their children with customized education, including special after-school classes, to make up for their inadequate school and family education.

But the problem is that most of the nongovernmental training institutions usually offer subjects aimed at improving children's performance in school. In this sense, extracurricular classes are not simply money spinners.