Recently, there have been frequent issues in Mainland China’s schools. The Guizhou Guiyang Economic and Technical School sparked student protests due to unauthorized excessive enrollment. In Guangdong, there is a wave of closures in private high schools in Shenzhen, leaving students and parents feeling helpless and frustrated.
On the night of July 26 to the early hours of July 27, over two thousand students at the Baiyun campus of Guizhou Guiyang Economic and Technical School rose in protest, vandalizing the school. The principal was physically assaulted and injured by the students, leading to a scene of bloodshed. Meanwhile, parents also gathered at the school to demand explanations.
A student named Chen Jun (pseudonym) spoke to the Epoch Times reporter on July 29, revealing the cause of the incident. He explained that shortly after new students arrived at the school and registered, on the night of the 26th, the school administration attempted to transfer students to other schools, exposing the fact that the principal had clandestinely enrolled over two thousand extra students beyond the authorized capacity.
Chen Jun said, “The school originally had a quota of 600 students, but the principal, in pursuit of profits, enrolled over 2000 students. After students arrived and registered, it was revealed that the principal had colluded with other schools, effectively selling us to those schools. This resulted in discontent, leading to the assault on the principal and demands for tuition refunds.”
He also mentioned that due to the school transferring them to many other schools, he had decided to directly withdraw from the school.
Another student told the reporter, “The school intended to secretly transfer students to other schools but was reported by parents. The students were furious, chasing and assaulting the principal and teachers. With things like this happening, who would dare to study? The primary focus now is on how the education bureau handles the situation.”
As of July 28, many parents were still gathered at the school entrance protesting. On the night of the incident, the police entered the school to maintain order as students vandalized facilities such as the library.
On July 28, the Education Bureau of Guiyang City announced on its official website that, following a preliminary investigation, Guizhou Guiyang Economic and Technical School had engaged in violations during the enrollment process, including exceeding the approved enrollment quota through third parties and overenrollment. Currently, the Education Bureau has initiated an investigation.
Epoch Times reporters attempted to contact the Education Bureau of Guiyang City but were unsuccessful.
Students paid tuition fees ranging from 5,000 to 7,000 yuan. Most students are requesting fee refunds and withdrawal from the school.
Publicly available information indicates that Guizhou Guiyang Economic and Technical School is a provincial key secondary vocational school approved by the Guizhou Provincial Department of Education and Guiyang Municipal Education Bureau, established in the late 1970s.
In July, several private schools in Guangdong, including the prominent Houde Academy, closed down. Houde Academy, founded in 2016 in Shenzhen’s Longhua District, was fully established by the well-known Bond Education Group in Shenzhen.
At the school’s founding, it gained significant attention in Shenzhen’s education circles. In that year, the second-ranked student in the Shenzhen high school entrance examination abandoned public schools and transferred to Houde, which became a key point in the school’s subsequent enrollment promotion. The school had been rated as the “2020 Shenzhen Excellent and Characteristic Private School” by the Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau. In 2021, Houde Academy had a college entrance examination pass rate of 87.93%.
Houde Academy has sections for college entrance exams and international studies. The cultural courses in the college entrance exam class cost 43,000 yuan per semester (about 5,900 dollars), while the art course fees are 59,000 yuan per semester (about 8,100 dollars). The school offers related discount policies, and parents who pay tuition fees in advance can enjoy certain discounts.
According to Epoch Times reporters, many parents paid all tuition fees in advance to take advantage of these discounts. Unfortunately, they did not anticipate the school’s closure.
Lu Jianfeng (pseudonym), a high school student at Houde Academy, revealed to the Epoch Times reporter that there were abnormalities at the school during his sophomore year. From March to April of this year, many individuals frequently came to the school demanding explanations, all of which were ignored by the school administration, claiming them to be rumors, mistakes, or handling them coldly.
He said, “There are many infrastructural issues within the school that have not been fixed or have problems.”
He revealed that the school should refund students’ tuition fees and unpaid rent, totaling approximately 100 million yuan (about 14 million dollars). Additionally, there are financial disputes between the school and the small shops, debts in terms of data textbooks; if not for the closure, the students would have been unaware that the teachers were also owed wages.
It was reported on July 9 that Houde Academy received a notice from the property management company, Shenzhen Bojin Huitong Industrial Co., Ltd., requiring them to vacate the premises by July 12 due to unpaid rent for several months.
Lu Jianfeng stated that the most affected were the freshmen, sophomores, and teachers. As the school’s management is unresponsive, some parents suspect that the principal has absconded with the funds. However, this claim has not been confirmed by Epoch Times reporters.
He mentioned that the latest news is that the freshmen, sophomores, and teachers have been reassigned to Zhonghui Middle School. Regardless of whether they are satisfied with this reassignment, the students and parents may have to accept it.
At the same time as the closure of Houde Academy, Mingrui Senior High School in Shenzhen also suddenly shut down.
A parent of a student at Mingrui High School, Yu Sha (pseudonym), told the Epoch Times reporter that on the afternoon of July 11, parents were suddenly informed to attend a meeting at the school, where it was announced that the school was closing and students needed to transfer.
“We weren’t notified in advance at all. There was absolutely no notice,” Yu Sha said helplessly.
Mingrui Senior High School was established as a fully residential private high school approved by the Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau in 2021.
Yu Sha mentioned that the school has only around a hundred students in the first and second grades, with no third-grade students. The Education Bureau plans to allocate these students to another school under the same group in Longgang District.
“Now they are transferring us to Longgang District, and we are all reluctant to go because that is also another school under their umbrella. Since all the schools have closed down, what if that one also closes down, and that school’s reputation in the local community is not good, so we are afraid to go there,” Yu Sha said.
Parents are scrambling to find schools; public schools are full, and private schools are charging exorbitant fees. If there are no other options, they may have to adhere to the arrangements made by the Education Bureau.
Mingrui School also had policies for fee reductions during enrollment. Many parents paid one year’s tuition in advance to save money. Yu Sha mentioned that it is still unclear whether tuition fees can be refunded or if the new schools specified by the Education Bureau have such reductions. However, she affirmed that if parents find schools themselves without any reductions, they would have to pay 50,000 to 60,000 yuan per semester, which is unaffordable for many working-class families.
Yu Sha revealed that the students are very worried now, “they are afraid of suddenly being placed in a new environment, not being able to adapt, or having issues, and many children are very anxious.”
In May of this year, aside from Houde Academy, five other private high schools in Shenzhen failed to participate in the first round of admissions for 2024. These schools are: Shenzhen Nanshan Weiming School, Fujing Foreign Language School, Mingde Experimental Bilingual School, Mingrui Senior High School, and Huangyuyuan School.
Based on information gathered by reporters, in addition to Houde Academy and Mingrui Senior High School closing, there have been rumors of other closures at Fujing Foreign Language School and Huangyuyuan School. Yu Sha stated, “Several private schools in Shenzhen have closed down, and now it’s commonplace for kindergartens to close down, but for high schools to close down is very incomprehensible.”
Epoch Times reporters attempted to contact the Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau and Longhua District Education Bureau but were unable to get through.