Many Chinese parents want their children to learn English at a very young age. However, problems such as unqualified foreign language teachers, disputes over fees, the sharp differences between demonstration and normal classes, and the difficulty in withdrawing the fee have haunted training institutes.

Training Institutes do not value the qualifications of foreign English teachers.

"English as mother tongue, or have teaching experience in Britain or United States,"a Want Ad for foreign English teachers from a training institute shows. It does not say about the applicants' qualifications for teaching or does not require a clean police record. The institutes do not treat the issue seriously. "Qualifications are not important. Some of our foreign teachers are not qualified but attract many students," the head of one training school said.

What's more, most of the hired foreign English teachers are not native speakers. "We worry that some parents might be disappointed so we conceal the personal information of foreign English teachers. Some parents have little knowledge about English so they cannot tell the difference between foreigners who are native speakers and those who are not. It’s fine as long as they are Caucasians."

Another problem is the difficulty in getting withdrawal fees if parents want to withdraw their child. However, training schools refuse to return the money if parents cannot prove there is something wrong with their teaching.

More than 60 percent of those learning English in China are under the age of 5, according to a white paper issued by the China Youth and Children Research Association and Study English Education Research Academy.

"Parents might lose their confidence in English education for children, even the English training sector, if the institutes do not improve," some educational experts warned.

(Compiled by Lyu Feisha)