CRI听力:Early Education Necessary or Not

Nowadays, most early education centers are crowded with parents. Some early education centers in Beijing say they have professional teachers with international backgrounds. What's for sure is that what's behind such advantages is a high price tag.

One consultant in an early education in Beijing says their teachers come from America, and one lesson costs 238 yuan. This means that having the child in this class, parents need to pay more than 10,000 yuan a year to the early education center. It's much more expensive than the tuition fees of universities in the country.

Is it really necessary to give children such courses? One course consultant in an early education centre in the capital says "the earlier, the better".

"To be honest, it's already a bit late to have three years old child in the early education course. Do you know how old our youngest student here is: only four or five months old."

The consultant says they provide many more classes than maths, music and science.

"We also provide classes in art, global travel, which means we'll offer the mock scenarios of the 24 countries and allow kids to experience these mock countries, also we have outdoor classes, which provide kids the mock scenario of the bank, post office, and also we'll teach children how to make pizza bases in a mock Pizza Hut."

The course consultant says all these courses aim to develop the talent and potential of babies and children. And the earlier children's potential is explored, the better the brain nerve grows.

However, another early education expert warns this is incorrect. Professor Li Minyi from Beijing Normal University gives her opinion.

"When kids reach about seven years old, the brain nerve branches of human being will undergo big changes, it's like the branches of a tree being sheared. And the brain will only keep the information that we often use. Therefore, it's incorrect to say it's better to give children as much information as possible. To some extent, if you give children too much information too early, you'll probably bring negative influences to children's brain functions."

In addition, if you look at the employment ads of some early education centers, you'll find few of them require their teaching candidates to have professional qualification such as teacher's certificates. One early education center in Guangdong explains why.

"We early education doesn't belong to education industry, we are more about training courses. So we are totally different from school education system. And teacher's certificate is not necessary for teaching candidates. We are actually a company which has no connection with the education authority. However, the major task for our employees is also teaching."

Professor Li Minyi from Beijing Normal University says the top priority in early education for babies and children should be nutrition, sports and sleep rather than what early education promotes such as exploring the potential of children's brains. And parents would make the best teachers in early education.

"The best place to receive early education for kids who are under three years old is the family, nature and good community resources such as museums. Nowadays many museums and exhibitions are open to the public free of charge, so these should be the best places to teach your child."

Li adds she believes that such family education will be much valuable than that of any education institutions.

For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.