“Teacher Research Fee”: Table Details Kickbacks at Chinese Schools

 “Teacher Research Fee”: Table Details Kickbacks at Chinese Schools
Nov 28, 2013 By eChinacities.com

Editor’s note: Allegations of corruption abound in China, but proof of such malfeasance has never been as clearly detailed as this “kickback table,” which charts who got kickbacks and how much they received. This extract is translated from a Chinese article and goes behind the scenes to reveal how kickbacks work in the Chinese education system, using Fenshi Media Arts Training Center as its example.


Source: HowardLake

Recently, a table detailing kickbacks from students made to the Fenshi Media Arts Training Center of Guangdong has been made available to the media via a reporter for the Information Times Report. This “kickback table” details the student’s personal information, amount of fees paid to the school, as well as who got kickbacks and how much they received. The whistle blower says that in the past two years, recruitment of students and teachers involves “unwritten rules,” and these “rules” are in practice at hundreds of schools throughout Guangdong Province.

What’s in the kickback table?

“Student: Zhong XX. School: XX School. Date of school payment: June 16, 2012. Amount of school payment: 38,000 RMB. Date of kickback: June 2012. Amount of kickback: from 1 to 1,500 RMB. Amount of kickback: 2 to 1,500 RMB. Recipiant of kickback: Prefect Zheng for class Upper-two…”

The kickback table lists the 14 details that include the student’s personal information like the school attended, amount of school payment, date of kickback, amount of kickback as well as information about the recipient of the kickback. There are nearly 700 student names on this list that hail from high schools located in Guandong Province as well as in Dongguan, Foshan, Maoming, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Meizhou, Qingyuan, Zhongshan and Xiantou. The schools involved are a mixture of publicly- and privately-run institutions.

Highest kickback from one school totaled 170,000 RMB

Fenshi focuses its time and energy at middle school students because they need to persuade children to take the yikao (the art school equivalent of the gaokao, China’s national examination system for determining how students are accepted into universities). The whistle blower said, “Student recruiters will go into the schools to speak to whomever is responsible for whichever school; it’s best if this is the principal of the school; if the principal isn’t available, then the class prefect or even the teacher in charge of the class or art teacher is sought out. These people are then instructed to encourage the students to enroll at the Fenshi art school. If students do end up enrolling at the school, then the principal and the teachers will receive kickbacks,” Or as they are euphemistically called, “teaching research fees.” Generally speaking, the higher the tuition, so too are the kickbacks.

The whistleblower states that all the kickbacks use a system of “payment certification” to balance it. According to calculations, a school could stand to make betwen 1,500 RMB and 170,000 RMB in kickbacks.

How to woo the students?

This reporter contacted many students that had previously enrolled at the Fenshi training center. The students say that at the beginning, they would see adverts for the training center in the classroom or in the school vicinity. The school would also hold parental conferences to tell the parents about the school, they were told anyone could enroll, even if they thought their academic achievements or cultural standing was low. Finally, teachers would hold a “mini-course” for students interested in enrolling at the school in order to help finalize their ambitions towards the school. For their part, the training center would send personnel to the school to give talks, including previously enrolled students.

“Our teacher told us that if we were to enroll, we would be able to get into university even if we had low scores,” said Xiao Yu (a pseudonym), a student that hails from No. 75 Middle School of Guangzhou and has enrolled at the Fenshi Media Arts Training Center. Xiao Yu’s father and mother say that even though enrolling at this training center has a lot to do with the hobby of their daughter, what really attracted them to the idea was hearing about the high success rates at one of the talks. “Our daughter liked it, and their teacher recommended this school for us; that’s what made us decide.”

Xiao Ling (a pseudonym), a middle school student from Tianhe, Guangzhou, doesn’t have great grades and is in danger of not passing the examination to enter university. He told this reporter that he, along with three others, were spoken to by their teachers about going to Fenshi, “We have all been singled out by the teacher for a talk. The teacher told us the rate of students going on to enter university that have attended this training school is very high; furthermore, these students do so well that they are able to have their pick of preferred university.”

Xiao Peng (a pseudonym), a fellow student who has been enrolled at the training center for a year, said, “The teacher said that this is a path to success, and for us students to use it well.”

Talking to the teachers

This reporter, using the details and identity of personnel from the training center, contacted two teachers, whose names are written on the kickback table.

According to the kickback table, Teacher Liang of the first year class from No. 41 Middle School recommended seven students to the training center between May 2012 and November 2012. For this, teacher Liang received kickbacks that total 15,000 RMB. After each student was successfully enrolled, Liang would receive 1500 RMB as a “teaching research fee”, an amount that would add up to 10,500 RMB. After a further three students had enrolled, Liang would receive another 4,500 RMB.

When asked, Teacher Liang confirmed that the “teacher research fee” was delivered promptly and was the correct amount. “However, if there is any more of it, then of course that would be even better!” After giving him a choice of kickbacks between 1500 RMB, 2000 RMB, or 2500 RMB, Liang considered 2000 RMB to be the most appropriate.

At the time she received the kickbacks, Teacher Liang was teaching third–year high school students. She said that she would post the grades for students publicly and then would later single out students in class and during parent-teacher conferences, and promote the training center to them.

Liang said, “The students are very accepting of the offer, and lately there have been more students taking part. The most important part is when previous students have enrolled at the training schools; this makes the students believe in it.” nbsp;

Liang doesn’t think that there is anything inappropriate about the relationship the training center has with the school, but she also admits that the school’s management has become stricter: the school has said they can no longer advertise for these supplemental training schools due to the consequences that might arise for the school.  

Source: Sohu

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Keywords: bribes in Chinese education system bribes in Chinese school corruption in Chinese school kickback table; kickback at Variations:

4 Comments

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bill8899

A fraction of the tip of the iceberg.

Jan 18, 2014 20:19 Report Abuse

life20

Thank you for bringing this information about this article. Keep on http://buyvinefollower.org

Dec 03, 2013 08:37 Report Abuse

Guest2368048

When it comes to corruption, the laowai who predicted "there is nothing new under the sun" would be well pleased with mainland Chinese, who so unyieldingly supported this prediction of his for millenniums.

Nov 29, 2013 01:40 Report Abuse

coineineagh

Corruption is the norm in China. A woman's culture, adapted to family safety and stability rather than fairness and morality. If people only care about themselves and their families, then all they can think about is 'how to get the money'. Chinese are not well-known for their confidence or bravery, and it is this tendency that will be people's undoing. The government really needs to stop striking fear into people's hearts, if they want them to behave morally. But with the main foreign influence (USA) being quite happy with a sanctimonious, sellout, pushover Chinese government, this is unlikely to change. Beijing complains about the rampant corruption at local level weakening them, but they really have themselves to blame for creating this hopeless bureaucratic free-for-all.

Nov 28, 2013 11:34 Report Abuse