Chinese take baby steps to CEO suite

CHILDREN as young as three are being enrolled in “chief executive courses” in China as pushy parents become obsessed with giving their offspring an advantage over their young peers.

The toddlers will become qualified in determining “real and fake friendships” and learn “techniques in dealing with conflicts among friends”, according to the website of one such course at the Baoyatu Early Education Garden in Beijing.

The “little leaders”, aged from three to six, will “learn how to make simple dreams come true” during the two-year, twiceweekly course, which costs 30 000 yuan (about R65 800) a year. “We teach our children to understand how leaders would behave,” said a staff member at the school.

Parents in the southern city of Guangzhou can enrol children on a “CEO training course” at the “Leederedu” school for 50 000 yuan a year. The twiceweekly course helps develop “leadership abilities” and “competitiveness” in three- to eightyear-olds, the school’s website said.

The Shenyang Early Education Centre claims it can give babies “self-confidence” with what it calls a “management trainee” course that it offers to newborns aged up to six months.

The centre, which is based in northeast China, also offers a “CEO course” for children older than three, and “presidents” and “directors” courses for younger children.

Extracurricular education is popular in China, particularly during the school holidays, when many parents seek summer camps for their children. Extracurricular classes during term-time are also common, and they can be a burden for Chinese pupils, who begin school at 8am and are given large amounts of homework.

Some Chinese reports have labelled “elite training schools” as “glorified babysitters”, but they remain popular.

Zhang Hao, an IT technician in Beijing, enrolled his three-yearold daughter on a leadership course in June. He paid a discounted annual fee of 12 000 yuan for two 40-minute classes a week.

“I am not really sure what they teach in the class, but they promised that after my daughter was trained she would become more confident and would easily become the centre of attention among her friends,” said Zhang.

“I don’t really see any signs that she has changed — except perhaps she is a little less shy.

“But I doubt the course can really teach a child to be a future leader because they are too young. What more do you expect a three-year-old to do? My daughter doesn’t even know how to put her own shoes on.”

Among the schools that have become popular with Chinese parents are those which boost skills deemed more Western or elite.

They often involve sports such as horseriding or golf, or Western practices, such as a “culture class” offered by Seatton, one of the top Western culture and etiquette schools in China.

The company’s founder, James Seatton, branded the chief executive courses a “marketing ploy” and said learning should be “fun” for children.

“Children are already under increasing pressure to perform well at school, and that means they have less time to enjoy childhood.” — © The Daily Telegraph, London