hers are more difficult to find.

So up grew the practice for parents to show their gratitude to the volunteer teachers by offering them gifts, such as cigarettes, meat and fish, clothing and coupons for commodities in short supply.

But the gifts never quite matched up to the work involved and so teachers began to charge for their services.

A very quick expansion of the charged service followed with classes being started for adults. These classes included hairdressing and cooking for women, calligraphy and qigong for the elderly and child care for parents. Many young people also went to English classes to prepare for tests to qualify them to go abroad.

There are now classes of various kinds in the big cities. In Guangzhou, for example, the third traffic peak hour is from 9 to 10 in the evening when people are leaving night schools.

The charge for service was started by individuals, but now many cultural institutes have also entered the market.

Over the past two years, they have set up correspondence courses, invited scholars to give lectures and even compiled text-books.

It all means that what was once a purely social service has turned into a business. Competition has grown with organizers offering such attractions as the showing of new films and the issuing of diplomas approved by the State's Education Commission.

For the institutes, these activities are collective moonlighting. They offer the usually low-paid teachers and science and technology workers the chance of a second pay packet.

Students on this market benefit more. Women from Anhui Province applying for baby-sitting jobs can ask for 5 yuan more if they can speak putonghua because parents are concerned that their children would otherwise be affected by local dialects. The skill of typing too can bring extra income.

The benefits that both teachers and students gain from this market show just how highly knowledge is evaluated. At a time when the State cannot invest more in education, such a spontaneous market is no doubt a necessary supplement.

5. Education Standards Are Higher Than in the Past

Well, there are a lot of different views on this, but I must say I don't think there's very much hard evidence that educational standards are any worse today than in the past. It all depends, of course, on what you measure and how you measure it, but I think it is probably wrong to imagine that there was some golden age in the past when everything was perfect. Of course it may surprise some people that there has not been an obvious and dramatic increase in the standard of education, given the vast amounts of money spent in this area by successive governments in recent years. But unfortunately, most improvements in education are intangible.

6. Give Students Time to Grow

With examinations drawing near, the burden on middle school students is becoming heavier and heavier. They have more homework than ever before, and less time for leisure, rest and sleep.

Because of the over-load,most students' health suffers and many become nearsighted. An investigation made in a Honghu middle school shows that: compared with 1985, the number of nearsighted students has increased by 25-30 per cent and a larger proportion of students complain of poor health.

It is not necessary to keep the students in class all the time. They need to go outside for sports, singing, dancing and other activities. We

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