‘Shameful’: Chinese school faces backlash for demanding new students’ family wealth details

A secondary school in eastern China is at the centre of controversy for collecting the information of its fresh students’ parents, including what brand of car they drive and their values.Dongying-no-1-middle-school" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="161007" data-entity-type="organization">Dongying No 1 Middle School in Dongying, Shandong province, distributed the information collection form in late June among students who were recently admitted, China-newsweek" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="124704" data-entity-type="organization">China Newsweek reported.Students were requested to fill in the details of their parents’ names, where they work, their titles and their mobile numbers.However, the students were also asked to provide details of their parents’ car, such as its brand, plate number and the buying price.On the cars, the school went to great lengths to add a remark: “This is only for the school’s internal use. Parents, please feel assured to fill in the information.”The school noted that vehicle details are for internal use only, attempting to reassure parents. Photo: ShutterstockThe information request soon triggered a backlash among the public after some internet users shared it online.“So teachers will treat students differently according to their parents’ different backgrounds. If not, why does the school bother to gather this information?” one internet user asked.Another person wrote: “If I say I am unemployed, will my child be arranged to sit in the last row in the classroom?”“How shameful this school is! Their teachers forgot their mission as the engineers of the human soul,” commented a third user.In response to public pressure, the Dongying-municipal-education-bureau" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="161009" data-entity-type="organization">Dongying Municipal Education Bureau issued a statement on June 30, confirming it had verified the incident and ordered the school to stop collecting the data and delete all previously gathered information.“We will take this as a lesson. We will check with all schools in the city on whether they have carried out similar activity. We will try our best to protect the privacy of students and their parents,” the authority said.An internet user who graduated from the school several years ago told the media that he was also told to submit such information when he was admitted.Further Reading“The school told us collecting the cars’ information was for the sake of campus safety,” internet user Zhang was quoted as saying.Newly enrolled students had to list their parents’ names, workplaces, job titles, and mobile numbers. Photo: ShutterstockAn unnamed spokesman from the school said that after students provided the cars’ plate numbers, these vehicles could be allowed to park near the school when parents picked up their children.“We need to know the cars’ price for reference when deciding which students are entitled to apply for financial subsidy that is only set for poor students,” the spokesman was quoted as saying.The Shandong school is not the only one in China catching attention for infringing students’ privacy.In May, a primary school in central Hubei province sparked controversy after asking pupils to complete a questionnaire about their parents’ jobs.Students were asked questions such as, “Is your parents’ work environment hot, noisy, or smelly?” and “How many hours do your parents work per day?”