What Drives Chinese Children to Study Abroad

Studying abroad was once a previlege of the children from rich Chinese families in 1990's, but is the choice of quite some middle-class families now.A recent discussion with a Canadian friend showed his surprise: "From the North American perspective, I would say that we view childhood education in China to be effective and rigorous - at least that is the perception Westerners hold."  

It is quite natural to make westerners believe the success of Chinese education considering how many Chinese students have been recruited by the top universities such as Yale, Harvard, etc.recently. A further evidence to show how the apparent success in the eyes of Westerners was that a British school invited Chinese teachers to help improve British teaching method. On the other hand, all the Chinese families with school age kids are not happy with current education system, especially the current school practices. A couple of examples can show you the apathy and banality which could prevail in most Chinese schools. Can you imagine primary school kids have to stay up as late as up to 10-11 pm just to complete their homework? Can you believe some teachers forbid the pupils to go out of classroom during the recess? Can you believe quite some pupils have to deal with Mathematical Olympiad problems which don't belong to the standard curriculum at all even at the age of 7-9? ... The result is that the children are deprived of their interest in study! That's why so many children hate books once they have finished high school!