As gaokao approaches, China’s booming online education industry still plagued by lack of trust

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Chinese high school students face increasing competition to score highly in a key test determining which college they can attend, but most parents remain very suspicious of online education. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00am, 11 Jun 2015Updated: 9:11am, 11 Jun 2015

China’s online education industry has cashed in on the ramped-up competition among Chinese students to attend prestigious universities both in and outside the country, but most parents still do not trust what is being offered, a new survey shows.

Techweb polled 145 Chinese parents and found that only 5.5 per cent had turned to supplemental online education to help their kids prepare for the national university entrance exam, despite optimistic investors pouring millions into education-themed start-ups lately.

The test, called gaokao in mandarin, is a standardised examination that over 9 million Chinese students sit each year to determine which level of university they can gain entry to. Parents throng temples nationwide to pray for luck each year when it rolls around.

“Online education may seem to be time-saving and efficient, but there are many hidden risks,” said one of the people polled, pointing to a lack of standards in terms of the curriculum, quality of teachers, and the danger of infringing academic texts’ copyrights.

Just over a quarter, or 27.6 per cent, of those polled said they had sent their children to use offline educational tools or teachers to prepare for the landmark exam, while 72.4 per cent had not deferred to any kind of supplemental learning.

Despite this apparent lack of interest, Chinese online education start-ups like Genshuixue seem to have had little trouble attracting capital.