A few excerpts:

The Lin family is one of many affluent Chinese families turning their backs on traditional Chinese education. A growing number want more from their child’s school, an alternative, more Western approach which they believe will help their kids develop their creativity. And they’re willing to pay.

Asia-focused brokerage and investment firm, CLSA, estimates the private education market in China is now worth more than rq yuan ($315m). The broker also expects enrolment in international schools, which are all private, to grow 14% annually through 2018.

[...] the percentage of private schools in China has risen to 10% from 3% less than a decade ago.

“The education system today ignores personality development, values, and social responsibilities. This is [the] cause of great problems for our country,” said Yang Dongping, an education expert at the Beijing Institute of Technology and the dean of the 21st Century Education Research Institute.

“It’s very difficult to move mindsets from an exam-orientated education, to one where personality is also accounted for,” Yang said.

In response, private classes are springing up across China, not just in the urban hubs, to fill a widening gap between the new middle class’ expectations of a good education and what Chinese public schools can offer.