Last night on Suzhou local news – between the reports on the latest real estate scam and the young man that murdered his pregnant girlfriend – there were a couple reports on the state of the local school system, which, I imagine, is reflective of the state of the nation. Actually, given that Suzhou is as rich per capita as a second-tier city as any of the first tier cities in China, it just might be that the state of most other school systems is even more desperate than what I saw last night.

The first report talked about how over-crowded Suzhou public schools have become. On average, after 8th grade, it costs about 400 RMB per month for a student to go to a public school in the area. With the import of a wai di ren (literally, outside land people – Chinese from cities other than one’s hometown), public schools are bulging with pupils. For an additional 1000 RMB up to 10,000 RMB per month parents can send their children to private Chinese schools. However, the quality of the Chinese private schools is difficult for parents to gauge. So, they are in a quandry as to what to do with their children.

Which brings us to the second education-related report, fifteen minutes after the first. A private school for elementary age children was suffering financially (for reasons I am unclear on). The Chinese owner of the school saw the handwriting on the wall (in a manner of speaking) and ran off with the school’s funds. The parents nor the teachers nor the police know his whereabouts. Teachers continue to work without salary; though for how much longer no one knows.

Of course, it seems contradictory that in the first report there seem to not be enough public schools to go around, which should mean bonanza for private schools. However, if the quality of the private school is not good and/or the tuition is higher than the market is willing to bear, it seems it will meet its end.

I have a tough time, though, shaking the image of the six-year olds happily stomping around the playground, oblivious to the turn of events at their school, and clueless that getting a proper education in modernizing, ever-wealthier China will prove increasingly challenging for them.