Test prep in Hong Kong and the Mainland: grades, glitz, and gulags

The test prep industry in China is cutthroat, to put it nicely. The South China Morning Post published an article on the intense competition amongst private tutors in Hong Kong, which sounds so fierce and backstabbing that it's just begging for a reality television show (if one's not in the works already). Popular tutors can make as much as one million HKD a month, provided that they have the hype and publicity to keep the students flowing in.

From SCMP.com:

"It is the students, but not the parents, who decide which tutor [to go to]," said Kevin Ko Sik-ka, 39, who has been a tutor for nearly 20 years. "These young and immature `decision makers' focus on tutors' looks rather than teaching. Some tutors in their twenties claim they have been executives of multinational companies ... only kids would have trusted them."

Mr Ko, who owns his own studio and conducts his lessons entirely by DVD, said many tutors were narcissistic. "They post huge personal photos on advertisements and think students come to lessons because they are handsome or pretty. Some tutors refuse to say if they are married because they are afraid of losing `fans' in class," he said.

Mr Ko has spent HK$1.2 million this year on advertising, including front-page newspaper advertisements. He said competition was so intense that tutors were stealing each others' ideas. A few years ago he spotted an "undercover agent" at his school who had been recording his methods. They were then published as "secret skills" in the pamphlets of other tutors."