South China Morning Post, Jan 4 http://www.chinastudygroup.org/index.php?type=news&id=4213
Primary and secondary schools on the mainland come second only to real estate in terms of profit margins, a leading financial daily reported.
Children are entitled to nine years of free education but many schools arbitrarily charge students extra fees.
The profit margin of running the schools was found to be higher than many multi-billion industries such as car manufacturing, publishing and telecommunications last year, according to a China Securities Journal report.
Only property development provided a bigger margin, said the report, which surveyed the 10 most profitable businesses on the mainland. The article ranked the industries, but did not state the respective profit margins.
It attributed the profitability of schools to the many arbitrary surcharges they imposed on students for items such as books, uniforms, field trips and mandatory meals. The report blasted the practice and said it was "abusing public power for money-spinning".
Some education experts in China estimate that primary and secondary students had paid more than 200 billion yuan in surcharges in the past 10 years.
The report cited a state-run secondary school in Beijing which charged its students more than 7 million yuan in miscellaneous fees last year.
The school management divided the money, with each manager pocketing more than 1 million yuan, the report said.
It said the fees had boosted the monthly salary of many teachers in Beijing to more than 4,000 yuan, higher than university professors or high-level government officials. The teachers can also get housing and other allowances.
"The chaotic surcharge system is caused by the lack of supervision. The school management operation is not transparent and there are no clear-cut rules to regulate schools," the report said.
Other high-profit businesses on the mainland include running funeral parlours, selling eyeglasses and medicine, overseas study agencies and internet gaming.
Funeral items were marked-up several-fold for sale. For example, a urn for ashes bought for 30 yuan by a funeral parlour could fetch up to 400 yuan on the market.
Last October, Forbes magazine named Chen Tianqiao, a mainland internet game developer, as the nation's sixth-richest man. Mr Chen's wealth had increased by 4 billion yuan within two years, it said.