More than 30% of the Taiwanese parents want to send the children to study abroad

Post date: Aug 5, 2014 3:32:54 AM

According to a recent MasterCard international survey,the spending on children´s education in Taiwan is, on average, is around 17% of household income. The spending on education tops even the greater China area.

In addition, 32% of the Taiwanese parents would like to support their children to study abroad, which shows how much attention Taiwanese parents pay to children’s education, especially after a series of transformations of education system in Taiwan in recent years, most parents are confused and not sure about how the education system is going to be in the near future.

36% of Taiwanese have plans for further studying within a year, which 43% are out of interests or self-enhancement. This figure tops the other 15 Asia Pacific areas participating this survey; it’s 26% in Hong Kong and 19% in China.

Not only investing on self-enhancement, it is also on children’s education. 82% of the parents in Taiwan have savings dedicated for children’s education, way higher than the average ratio of the whole Pan Asia, 71%; while that of Hong Kong is 74% and that of China is 67%.

The percentage of the income saved for education every month it’s 17% in Taiwan tied with Myanmar following Thailand’s 21%. When it comes to the percentage of education spending in monthly income it’s 16% in Taiwan, ranked as the 1st among the greater China area.

Unlike in the past when parents cared only about the performance of transcript or “book smart”, nowadays, 71% more and more of the parents emphasize on extracurricular activities, among which foreign language learning (35%) ranks the 1st, followed by sports (31%) and music/ instrument (30%). Compared to 2013, the percentage of learning foreign languages has raised 3%, above the average of Asia Pacific (21%). Most of the parents think, in such a globalized society, the better command of foreign languages, the more competitiveness their children have.

Recently, because of a series transformation of education system in Taiwan, parents feel confused about the changing system. 32% of the parents in Taiwan would like to send their children to study abroad, while South Korea and China are ranked the top two in Asia Pacific, represent much higher percentage, 56% and 55% accordingly. Location wise, 24 % of Taiwanese parents would like to send children to US or Canada , Europe (10%), and Asia (7%). China and Japan are the top two choices for Taiwanese parents when it comes to studying abroad in Asia, due to the frequent cultural and economic/ commercial exchanges.

BBC News article: Asia’s parents suffering 'education fever'