Growing academic burden is a global problem

After-school education institutions and the intense academic burden facing students are not unique to China, and other countries face the same problem.

South Korea has some of the fiercest competition for education in the world. That has led to the rise of "goose families" - meaning the child lives overseas with their mother, while the father stays behind to make money, and family reunions require them to "migrate".

Jiang Yingmin, a professor at the Institute of International and Comparative Education at Beijing Normal University, said the goal for goose families is better fluency in English, which can lead to a better chance of attending a top college and securing a job at one of the country's giant conglomerates.