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UPDATED: April 18, 2011 NO. 16 APRIL 21, 2011
Is Girls' School Necessary?
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 (LI SHIGONG)

In March, the Zhuhai Girls' Middle School, the only girls' middle school in south China's Guangdong Province, began its first enrollments. Although tuition fees for the establishment are high, it was seen by many parents as a choice for their daughters.

The school was invested in by Zhuhai Henglong Group with 100 million yuan ($15 million) and was built in downtown Zhuhai with convenient transportation. Its first intake will begin on September 1. It's a boarding school combining junior middle school and senior middle school and it offers "physical exercise in the morning and yoga exercises before bedtime" to its students.

The tuition fee for the junior high school is 26,600 yuan ($4,030) each semester and 28,000 yuan ($4,242) to 34,000 yuan ($5,152) for senior high school a semester. The tuition fee for an international class of the senior high school is as high as 61,000 yuan ($9,242) a semester.

The much-too-high tuition fee hasn't lessened parents' enthusiasm for the school. Within the first 10 days of recruitment, half of the planned enrollment figure was filled. Most students come from affluent families, 70 percent from cities in the Pearl River Delta region in the province.

The earliest girls' schools in China, which were founded by Western missionaries, can be traced back to the 19th century. This kind of school was most popular in the 1930s and 1940s with more than 100 girls' schools throughout the country. Most of them were shut down during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). The girls' school after that period didn't appear until the foundation of Shanghai Third Middle School in 1981. Now China has about 20 girls' middle schools, most of which are owned by government. The Zhuhai Girls' Middle School is the only private one.

The establishment of the girls' school in Zhuhai gained the support of local government. Since its foundation, it has caused wide discussion in society at large and the hotly contested enrollments in March have also caused public attention and disputes.

Supporters say a girls' middle school is a real need in society along with the booming economy in China. Besides, a girls' school of today is different from one of older times and is able to offer more international and general education especially designed for young girls. Also, it's thought to be helpful in avoiding the phenomenon of puppy love, considered harmful for the girls' academic performance.

Opponents say a girls' school is societally regressive and isolating girls from boys is very bad for character and emotional development.

Needed

Deng Qunfang (www.zhnews.net): Nowadays, along with the rapid social and economic development in China and improvements of people's lives, people have a much greater requirement for better educational resources. The newly built Zhuhai Girls' Middle School will be good for promoting the free flow of educational resources in the Pearl River Delta region. Besides, it's a very good experiment in privately owned and quality education in the city.

Tian Shenglong (www.zhnews.net): Zhuhai Girls' Middle School is the first one of its kind in Zhuhai, which fills in a blank in basic education in the Pearl River Delta region. Modern girls' middle schools will implement special education designed for women based on their characteristics, which will let them fulfill their potential and cultivate outstanding women.

Chen Yeshui (www.zhjy.net): Establishing a girls' school meets a demand and requirement from society, parents and students. Girls will be allocated suitable sports and physical exercises based on their physiological features. Also, relevant courses and social practice activities designed accordingly will be more beneficial for the healthy development of their bodies and minds.

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