Forums > Living in Kunming > Foreigner children attend local primary school? Let's bring back another old thread, because time has passed.
Our son is turning 5 this spring, and apparently he gets to enter primary school in autumn next year - at 6 years old due to the cutting date in China being in autumn rather than end of year.
I'm looking for intelligence on what to expect in grades 1-2, primarily about education itself, and specifically reading and writing Chinese language.
This could be issue for us, because wife works weekday evenings and weekends in training school, and let's just say that I'm not qualified to help with Chinese homework.
My wife tells me to not to worry, because the recent crackdown in educations means grades 1-2 get no homework whatsoever, Chinese or otherwise.
Other side of the coin is that the same crackdown bans buying tutoring, should we need that.
I'm looking for recent experiences to confirm these things. Kid is treated as Chinese if that matters, and speaks the language fluently given his age.
Forums > Travel Yunnan > Dinosaur park between Kunming and Chuxiong To backtrack to the original topic, there is a review of the park from 2016 on this site:
www.gokunming.com/[...]
Does anyone know if the park today operates at same level of quality as witnessed in the article, or has it been improved or fallen from that?
To get there, the article recommends taking bus from Kunming West bus station to Lufeng (1h30min) and then small bus to the park (40min), and leave the park before 16:30 to catch last bus to Kunming.
To connect back to the more recent posts, does the high speed train to Dali stop at Lufeng? That would allow for better options to get there from Kunming - maybe even day visit there and get to Dali by evening.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Any place to watch NBA games? China's state broadcaster CCTV has apparently resumed showing select NBA games this month, after couple of years stoppage.
Warriors @ Spurs on CCTV-5 right now. Meanwhile QQ continues to stream most of other games.
Forums > Living in Kunming > COVID 19 vaccine for foreigners I recall by-appointment was mentioned in the first doses too, but neverthless you could just walk in without.
Probably appointment was originally needed for schools or others potentially large groups, and extended to everyone in way that is common bureacracy here - only to be ignored in the end.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Hospital recommendations for giving birth I'm not sure what qualifies as "proper VIP" for you, but I would suggest to settle to any medically qualified maternity hospital that can arrange private room where not only your wife, but also you can sleep the couple of nights prior to delivery if needed - if that's what you want of course.
Government sues parents to get kids back to school
Posted by@aliennew: "the important thing here is to give the kids of the poor an even break, which is hard to do when the kids of the rich have"
Naturally so. My argument is that the poor should have to pay taxes too (even if very marginal amounts), so that they would learn to ask for better services in exchange for that, and this would work towards breaks their kids get. They would learn to ask for them.
The current 3500 RMB tax break in monthly income, defined in national level, means huge number of rural residents never having to pay income taxes, and I would like to see the tax system reformed so that every person feels contributing to the common good, and in that everyone would be on the same line.
Then people in rural Yunnan and elsewhere could slowly learn to ask for same services as those in Kunming or Shanghai, since they would be contributing to the system on same terms..
Perhaps the money just isn't there, but at least more of the little there is would be directed to be spent properly.
Government sues parents to get kids back to school
Posted by@alienew: "Why "in China more than anywhere"?"
Because political system in China is naturally demotivating people from taking part in public interests and discussions for political reasons. They are also arguably quite restricted from pursuing the same goals for religious or spiritual reasons.
Since Deng, Chinese are however allowed and even urged to acquire financial wealth and prosperity. Social participation and activation of the public should therefore piggyback on money here.
The poor shouldn't have to pay taxes to finance the system, but to activate themselves to follow up on those tax contributions.
Specifically on OP, this means motivating to send your children to school, and to certain degree also making you interested to know whether your neighbour does that. And that once they do attend the school, they get the money's worth.of education.
Government sues parents to get kids back to school
Posted by"as for the poor caring where the tax goes, many are too ignorant of how governmt works anyhow"
Agreed, but I''d say that it is partly a chicken and egg problem. For better or worse, it is money that makes the world go around, and money can just as well stop it going around. Populism could be one realization of it stop going around.
I believe that in China more than anywhere this nature of money (or exchange of goods in wider context) should be utilized to mobilize the interest of the common people for their common causes.
But it may still be too early for the Chinese government to allow that. Too many skeletons still in open.
Government sues parents to get kids back to school
Posted byAnd on the note of 1%ers, if they would be made to pay 1% more tax, the question is whether they would pay it or move to a tax haven somewhere else. Worst case scenario is that instead of them paying 1% more, they would be paying zero.
It is (or should be) a fine balance.
Government sues parents to get kids back to school
Posted by@Dazzer: I don't mean the difference being in significantly bigger tax revenue, but the impact for individual families when they recognize that they have to pay their children's education and other state costs (via taxes) out of their very little income anyway, so why not use it..
For a person that makes, for example, a mere 100 RMB a month, 1 RMB or 1% tax taken out would go towards activating them to care how that 1 RMB gets used.
If the local government builds a new school house, they'd feel that they contributed to finance it and that they should use it.