Photo: ToGa Wanderings, (CC BY 2.0)
Education and training consumption in China increased significantly in 2020 and is expected to continue growing this year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has generally been tough on business. Nevertheless, China’s education and training industry developed against the trend and surged in 2020.
According to Chinese state television, CCTV Finance, and Rayee ACE, data from the ”China Good Life Survey (2020-2021)” showed that in 2020, 27.5 percent of Chinese people paid for education and training. That positions education among the four most popular consumption categories.
Citing data from the Chinese data service company Tianyancha, CCTV Finance reported that in the first 10 months of 2020, the number of enterprises in the education and training industry saw a net increase of 22.5 percent year-on-year. In the first half of last year alone, more than 10 billion yuan (about 1.28 billion euros) of financing poured into the educational field.
Problems with children’s education reach a 5-year high
Problems with children’s education ranked in 2020 third among family difficulties mentioned by the people responding to the ”China Good Life Survey (2020-2021)”. Of the surveyed, 36.2 percent were concerned about their children’s education. That is the highest level in five years.
Among those, who choose children’s education as their main ”family difficulty”, the age group of 36-45-year-olds accounted for the highest proportion, reaching almost 43 percent. They were followed by the 26–35-year-olds and the population aged 46–59.
Chinese want to spend more on education for children
Almost a third of the surveyed Chinese said that they wanted to increase consumption in education and training during 2021. That is nearly double the number of people, who wanted to use more of their income on vocational skills training.
74 percent of those, who said that they had difficulties with their children’s education, are planning on using more money on education for their offspring this year.
This suggests that for most Chinese parents, the main route out of problems related to their children’s education is to spend more money to improve it.
Looking back at the data for the past ten years, the large survey found that China’s education and training consumption levels have been steadily increasing. And the enthusiasm has not faded in 2021: Among all the consumption options given, education and training squeezed themselves into the top three for this year.
According to a recent forecast by the US firm Morgan Stanley, the Chinese education market will continue growing for the next 10 years.