Disorderly Fee Collection in Education · Full chronicle and history

On October 14, a university teacher posted on a social platform, saying that what he teaches students is knowledge that is years behind, mocking himself as "a product of the previous industrial revolution teaching knowledge from the era of industrial Cthulhu," and feeling powerless for his students. The post received 857,000 likes and 157,000 reposts.

On October 11, according to domestic media reports, a member of the parent committee at Siji School in Jinwan District, Zhuhai, proposed in a group chat that parents take turns going to the school to supervise students' midday rest, claiming the move was intended to allow teachers to rest better.

A student revealed that the school collected 100 yuan per person in August for a student accident insurance policy, but had not actually taken out the insurance; emergency insurance records were only made up the day after the incident.

On September 29, the Beijing Institute of Technology announced that faculty member Pei Yi had seriously violated professional conduct standards for teachers, revoking his qualification as a graduate supervisor and terminating his employment. Pei Yi had previously sparked controversy over remarks made in class discussing feminism and noting that all members of the Politburo Standing Committee are male.

On September 28, at Leiyang No. 1 Middle School in Hunan Province, the first-year senior high grade lured students into classrooms, locked the doors, and collectively forced haircuts and imposed charges on the grounds that their hairstyles were non-compliant, triggering panic; some students climbed over the wall to escape.

A netizen shared a video of two elderly people fighting over cardboard boxes, sparking sighs in the comments section about social involution. Some netizens pointed out that given the involution and food safety issues in China, many people might not even live long enough to reach the age of fighting over cardboard boxes.

Ministry of Education spokesperson and Vice Minister Wang Guangyan announced that China has built the world's largest and highest-quality education system, with 270 million people having received higher education.

On the evening of September 16, after dining at the cafeteria, students at Zhizhi Middle School in Dongdaihe New District, Suizhong County, Huludao City, Liaoning Province, suffered collective vomiting and diarrhea. According to the receiving hospital, more than 80 students sought medical treatment. Official notices stated that the incident was acute gastroenteritis caused by improper cooking and food handling in the cafeteria. Some parents revealed that the principal said only 7 yuan of the meal fee would be refunded. Several parents went to the school to protest, but school officials did not come forward to respond.

On September 13, 2026, a netizen posted a video claiming that when freshmen at the Zhongdong Campus of Shanxi Medical University registered, they found that the loft beds with desks underneath in their dorms were not equipped with ladders, and that freshmen needed to buy a ladder costing about 200 yuan each to get into their dorms.

On September 9, AI designer Mihrolla released a surrealist video, using metaphor to showcase the academic burden and ideological constraints in Chinese education.

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On September 5, 2026, primary and secondary school teachers in various regions posted on social media to complain about schools disguisedly forcing donations. Quotas were assigned based on senior teacher rank or permanent staff status, with requirements to post screenshots of the donations in work groups, triggering strong resentment.

On September 5, 2026, Tang Jiafeng, a famous postgraduate entrance exam math tutor, publicly declared that English is merely a tool, calling for an end to English's status as a core course in basic education and an end to the worship of foreign things, sparking fierce public controversy over education reform.

A plan by Zizhuang Primary School in Yongchuan, Chongqing, to charge students a tray-cleaning fee of 45 yuan per semester has sparked controversy. On September 3, 2026, the Yongchuan District Education Commission announced that the charge was non-compliant and ordered the school to stop it immediately.

On September 2, 2026, a parent exposed the schedule of the high school division of Haikou City No. 4 Middle School, which shows that the school forces students to collectively watch a half-hour broadcast of Xinwen Lianbo during the evening self-study period, sparking public discussion.

In Huazhou, Guangdong, a large number of students' parents gathered at the school gate to protest after some students were required to transfer to other campuses, and clashed with police.

Police told Enxu that Li Zheng was being detained on suspicion of organized crime; the report also stated that Li Zheng's network of schools was still registering companies and promoting new schools.

Beijing No. 18 Middle School recently replaced its principal with one from Shandong along with a number of teachers, sparking dissatisfaction over their poor Mandarin, low teaching quality, and an open letter from the principal criticizing students; subsequently, the principal was exposed as allegedly having a prior rape record, leading to collective student protests.

On September 1, 2026, some kindergartens in Hong Kong had young children perform Chinese-style marching drills to raise the flag at their opening ceremonies, and the Education Bureau disclosed that it had held 40 flag-raising workshops for more than 1,000 kindergarten teachers across Hong Kong to strengthen patriotic identity.

Students in the dormitories at the Zhongdu campus of Shanxi Medical University have upper bunks with no ladders. Parents have to buy a ladder from a shop off campus for about 200 yuan and bring it into the school to install it, and the university only allows parents to enter campus on the day of registration. Netizens question whether the school is working with merchants to fleece parents.

A teacher at Tongling No. 1 High School in Anhui, Anhui Province, posted a complaint saying that in addition to regular teaching they must constantly take part in teaching-research activities, write study reflections, work on papers and research projects, and set exam questions, saying: "Why can't work just be teaching? I'm so miserable, I want to escape all of this."

Hong Kong's Education Bureau announced a series of student mainland exchange programs themed on the "90th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March" for the new school year, arranging for students to visit relevant memorial sites and participate in themed activities.

On August 28, 2026, the Hong Kong Education Bureau sent a circular to all primary and secondary schools across Hong Kong, launching a student mainland exchange program for the 90th anniversary of the Long March victory, organizing students to visit Zunyi and other places to enhance their sense of identity.

On August 25, 2026, Aite Qidi Yulongwan Kindergarten in Laiyang, Shandong issued a report stating that family members of 3 students forcibly entered the teaching area and beat the kindergarten director and teachers, causing injuries, and that the kindergarten is cooperating in pursuing legal responsibility against the attackers.

On August 22, 2026, students at the Tagou Martial Arts School in Dengfeng, Henan, gathered in protest at the school gate over the cumbersome deposit refund process and abnormal student status information, climbed over the iron gate into the campus shouting "refund our money," and multiple police cars arrived at the scene.

On August 11, 2026, a counselor at Sichuan Southwest Medical University pushed the academic affairs office's mini-program in a class group chat to purchase brand-new textbooks, explicitly forbidding the purchase of second-hand textbooks or e-books, and even said that if students were unwilling to spend money on textbooks, they might as well take a leave of absence or drop out.

On August 11, 2026, a counselor at Southwest Medical University in Sichuan notified students that everyone was required to purchase brand-new textbooks through a school-designated mini-program, with second-hand books strictly banned, sparking online protests and exposure by students.

On August 9, 2026, a student at Yangling Experimental School in Xianyang, Shaanxi submitted a report stating that the school notified students to return nearly a month early for extra classes, that it has long-running high-intensity morning and evening self-study sessions, and that it charges about 500 yuan per month in after-school service fees as well as miscellaneous fees to be borne by students themselves.

On August 7, 2026, a student rights defense organization revealed that Yingshan High School in Sichuan Province illegally held supplementary classes and charged students fees during the summer vacation, while publicly claiming to offer free after-school care. During this period, students were forced to stay on campus at noon, and the quality of the cafeteria food was poor.

On August 2, 2026, students at Jimei Middle School in Liaoyang, Liaoning Province, submitted reports through an online platform, reporting that the school engaged in illegal operations such as unauthorized summer tutoring, arbitrary differentiated fees based on grades, and compulsory weekend labor.

First-year high school students at Anlu No. 1 High School in Hubei Province staged a collective strike to protest the school's decision to cut their original 20-day summer vacation down to just 5 days. Chanting slogans such as "Against centralization, advocate equality" and "Return our 20-day summer vacation," they ultimately forced the school administration to compromise and restore the long break.

The Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School in Dengfeng, Henan, has been exposed for coaches mistreating students and withholding students' deposits over a long period. After the incident came to light, hundreds of students gathered in protest for three consecutive days, demanding the return of their deposits.

Blogger Shiju Insight posted in June this year that some university technician classes failed to recruit enough students and in the end had to hold classes together with ordinary classes starting from junior high school graduates; the teachers' lecturing pace was extremely slow and the content extremely shallow, and high-end skills training turned into a big pot of stew for just killing time.

Online reports claim that China has begun implanting chips into student school uniforms for location tracking and surveillance.

Netizens submitted records of extreme point deductions at Hengshui No.2 High School, showing that students were frequently penalized for everyday details such as holding books incorrectly, using the restroom at night, not lying down properly while sleeping, and even laughing or combing hair.

Henan examinee Li Mengmeng scored 565, 13 points above the first-tier cutoff, but her paper application form never entered the admission process and was forgotten in the admissions office.

Starting in 2006, rural western China was the first to waive tuition and fees; in 2007 this was extended to all rural areas, and in 2008 free education was achieved in both urban and rural areas. The Two Exemptions and One Subsidy policy covered 150 million rural students, bringing to an end the system of paying fees during the compulsory education stage.

The author's uncle scored excellently on exams at Shanghai No. 5 Middle School in the 1950s, but because his father was a fugitive landlord he could not attend university and was assigned to an agricultural university in the northwest; that school was located in a famine-stricken area where people starved to death. After he returned to Shanghai, his household registration had already been transferred out so he could not re-register there, and he ultimately returned to his hometown in Zhejiang to farm and live out his days.