Weekends are a relaxing time for most people, but not for Lu Hong.

Saturday is when Lu, a young mother, accompanies her 13-month-old son to an early education centre near her home.

The various activities during the one-hour lesson always exhaust her, but she never complains.

"I don't want my son to fail at the very beginning of his life," she said.

The number of newborn babies in Shanghai has increased every year since 2001, with an average annual birth rate of about 70,000, according to the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission.

And now that many young parents have become aware of early education, the business is becoming more competitive in the city.

Hundreds of early education centres, focusing on children aged 3 and under, have sprung up over the past few years.

Generally, these private centres are divided into two groups: ones that specializes in open, Western-style education, providing a bilingual learning environment - including I Love Gym, Gymboree and Nobel Baby. The others use Chinese-style education by adapting methods developed by Maria Montessori, one of the world's greatest educators (1870-1952). Two Shanghai examples are the Weini Early Education Centre and Baby Blossom.

These schools emphasize experiences and games and are expensive. Tuition ranges from 50 to 220 yuan (US$6.25-27.50) per class, compared with the fee for a normal kindergarten of about 1,000 yuan (US$125) per month.

Tucked away in a residential building in Hongkou District, the Dou Dou House (DDH) has more than 60 toddlers. The living rooms and bedrooms have been converted into playrooms with various toys and soft surfaces.

On a visit to the school's art room, a young teacher got on her knees on the floor and asked five children to mould plasticine into different shapes.

On this weekday, each child was accompanied by a grandparent because their parents were busy at work.

Yan Jin usually spends more than four hours with his granddaughter at DDH every day,

"It's much better than staying at home," he said. "At least she can play with other children, and she seems quite happy to be here."

But while the children play and learn, there is a grown-up side to the business.

Liang Jing, head of DDH, said the competition among early education centres was getting more intense.

"However, the business is indeed on the rise, as young parents want to provide the best they can for their children because each family has only one child," she explained.

Liang herself sends her son to one of the top education centres in the city, Gymboree, which charges 13,000 yuan (US$1,620) for up to 100 lessons.

"I don't think it is expensive," she said. "Compared with spending money on clothes or bags, it makes more sense (to spend it) on children's education."

But Zhou Bo, who has taken her daughter to many education centres, thinks the prices are unreasonable.

"Many parents have no idea what teachers will teach in the class," she said. "As long as they hear something good from their kids, they are willing to pay."

Lu Hong was also concerned about the fact that most of the education centres have membership systems, which means customers have to pay fees half a year or a year in advance.

"They are privately owned companies," Lu said. "If they suddenly disappear, what can we do?"

There are currently no regulations covering early education centres and how they are run, which means they are free to fix prices at what they think the market can stand.

And the high price does not always guarantee high quality instruction.

One early education centre claims it provides bilingual education for toddlers aged 1 or above, which includes playing English songs in the classroom.

But some experts question this method's effectiveness.

"It's no use teaching children English at that age. The most important things for them at that stage is teaching them Chinese," said Hu Yu, head of the General Education Research Institute under the Shanghai Education and Science Academy.

"I think some education centres take advantage of parents' misunderstanding in this regard to make money."

What's more, the critics question the credibility of teachers' qualifications in general.

Many teachers do not have university degrees, as some education centres claim, and others find it too easy to acquire qualifications.

"I also question the foreign teachers' qualifications," Zhou said. "To my knowledge, some of them can get jobs easily as long as they are native English speakers, and they change jobs quite frequently. This is why I often see different foreign teachers in my daughter's class."

Each district in Shanghai has established an early education centre that costs less than these high-priced ones, but with an overall shortage, parents say they do not have enough options.

"I've heard about them, but I haven't done enough research so I have to choose a private one," Lu Hong said.

There are other reasons why parents choose private centres. Liang Jing used to send her son to a local education centre, but she stopped after a while.

The centre was located in a kindergarten, rather than at a special place developed for children aged from 1 to 3, and it was open only on weekends, which was inconvenient for her.

"The teachers are drawn from the kindergarten to teach our babies," said mother Zhou, who sends her daughter to the local State-owned centre.

"They are nice, but their teaching methods are limited to traditional ways."

An executive at the municipal education commission, who declined to give her name, said pressure was building.

"The workload is getting intense, but we don't have enough funds and staff to regulate the market," she said.

And because many education centres have registered with the Industrial and Commercial Department only as educational consulting companies, it is difficult for the commission to supervise their teaching.

"As there are no specific regulations," said Liang, the head of DDH, "the only rules are those of the market."

Source: China Daily