Almost every single student in Taiwan has been to a cram school, regardless of their age and their abilities. Cram schools, called buxibans, are part of the modern day Taiwanese culture, and without it the Taiwanese education system wouldn’t be what it is today.

Taiwanese students generally start going to cram school at the age of seven. They start cramming for math, music, English, Chinese, and sometimes art. However, once they reach junior high, kids start to get competitive about high school entrance standards schools, so they cram for math, English, and biology, which are the harder subjects on the high school entrance exam, called huikao.

If you ask anyone on the street in any part of Taiwan about what cram schools are, they would answer that they are places where kids do homework or practice for major tests. Cram schools are a place where students don’t learn, but rather memorize knowledge so they can do well on tests.

Cram schools may be a place where kids get to study, but these preparations need time and effort. And if kids need another school to learn, there is something wrong with the education system.

If students need to go to cram schools, why go to regular school?

If Taiwanese students need to go to cram schools after they finish normal school, why go to a regular school that doesn’t teach everything? Parents always want their kids to be the best in their schools, so they send them to cram schools that provide plenty of tests and homework for practice.

Kids spend at least six to seven hours a day at school and when they leave school they still have to go to buxibans to learn the exact same things again. If kids need to go to another school to learn the same stuff all over again, clearly the Taiwanese school system is doing something wrong.

Furthermore, if students need to go to buxibans, they often think they don’t need to be focusing in class because they are going to learn the exact same subjects and lessons taught in school. So, again, it makes no sense for kids to go to two schools when they should only need to do it once.

Do students go cram schools because they care about their grades, or do their parents?

To answer the question posed by the title of this article, cram schools are not for the students that go there, they are for the students’ parents. Most parents are more concerned with the students’ grades than the students themselves, and if the students are worried about their grades it is usually because their parents are pressuring them to get straight A’s.

Although there are still kids who are perfectionists and always want to get the highest grades in class, the majority of the students going to buxibans are pressured to get good grades to fulfill their parent’s expectations.

If all students get good grades because their parents want them to, their motivation for learning is wrong. Not only is the student’s motivation for learning wrong, it causes them additional stress and anxiety.

Is using up all of a student’s free time harmful or helpful?

Most of the hours spent at cram schools are taken from the student’s free time. According to Taipei Times, “Each child on average spends 2.78 hours per day at a daycare center or cram school,” said Ku Po-wen, a researcher at Chunghua University of education, adding that, “the average time spent by a first and second-grade student at such an institute was 2.29 hours, while third and fourth-grade students spend 2.84 hours, and fifth and sixth-grade students spend 3.1 hours.”

Students, especially those who are still in primary school, should not spend hours cooped in a classroom doing homework and tests. They should instead go out and spend more time with their families and friends since when they get older they would have to spend more time on studies due to how busy they will get after they are in college.

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Parents have been sending their kids to cram schools for decades, but not all kids succeed, even after going through the harsh process of cramming. Only people who enjoy learning and who are hardworking actually get a better future.

Cram schools are for parents that want to comfort themselves, thinking that sending their kids to cram schools will give their children an advantage in life. Unfortunately, thinking like this will likely not get anyone anywhere.