Trung Quốc cấm các trường học ép học sinh mua thiết bị điện tử

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China’s top education authority (cơ quan có thẩm quyền) has banned schools from demanding parents and students to purchase smart touchscreen devices and learning software programs after growing complaints (phàn nàn) over unreasonable (bất hợp lý) prices (giá cả) and promotional tactics (chiêu khuyến mại) of such products.

The Ministry of Education asked provincial authorities to strengthen their review of online learning resources and ordered schools from making unreasonable purchase demands on students, according to a statement Thursday. The ministry also said such acts have resulted in “evil” consequences (hậu quả tồi tệ) by increasing the financial burden (gánh nặng tài chính) on families and sabotaging (phá hoại ngầm) the fairness (sự công bằng) of education.

China introduced a range of digital devices and learning apps to modernize its education sector in 2016, with the technology widely adopted in virtual classes during the pandemic. The sales volume of smart devices on online platforms surpassed 1 billion yuan ($142 million) in 2020, with the amount expected to approach 100 billion yuan in 2024, according to an industry report.

However, students and their parents said they have felt compelled to adopt the trend after schools deemed them necessary learning tools. Some of them have even claimed that some schools were selling such devices at higher prices.

Fang Ziqing, a high school student in the eastern Shandong province, told Sixth Tone that her parents paid 580 yuan for a three-year membership of an app as requested by the school. Despite seldom (hiếm khi) using the app, she said teachers were pushing parents in chat groups to buy it.

“Though it’s voluntary (tự nguyện) in theory (về lý thuyết), there’s almost no chance of saying no because they would even disclose (tiết lộ) the list of people who bought it in the group,” she said, asking to be identified with a pseudonym (bút danh) fearing repercussions (ảnh hưởng, hậu quả). “It more or less feels like blackmail (tống tiền).”

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