《经济学人》双语：为什么亚洲各国的课外补习能蓬勃发展？

原文标题：
Cramming culture
Private tutoring is booming across poorer parts of Asia
Governments are struggling to keep up with an educational arms race
补习文化

课外补习在亚洲贫困地区蓬勃发展

各国政府正努力跟上教育军备竞赛的步伐

[Paragraph 1]

THE MORAL of the story is clear in “12th Fail”, a recent Bollywood hit about a poor farm boy, Manoj, bent on passing India’s ruthless police exam.

最近热播的宝莱坞电影《12年级的失败》讲述了一个贫穷的农家男孩马诺杰一心想通过印度残酷的警察考试的故事。

Yet for a film about education and meritocracy, the portrayal of Indian schools is dismal: teacher-abetted cheating is rife at Manoj’s local school.

然而，作为一部关于教育和择优录取的电影，影片对印度学校的描写却令人沮丧：在马诺杰所在的当地学校，教师教唆作弊现象十分猖獗。

Where he ultimately finds success, and love, is not at school, but at a jam-packed tutoring centre in Delhi.

他最终找到成功和爱情的地方，不是在学校，而是在德里一个人满为患的补习中心。

[Paragraph 2]

Private tutoring is well known as an East Asian phenomenon.

众所周知，课外补习是东亚地区的普遍现象。

Most students in East Asia get it: 72% in Hong Kong; 79% at South Korea’s hagwons; 52% of lower-secondary schoolers, Japan’s main test-crammers, in the country’s juku.

东亚的大部分学生都会上课外补习班：香港占72%；韩国课外补习的比例达到79%；日本“私塾”里的初中生占比52%，他们主要是为了准备各种考试。

These businesses, whatever their flaws, exist alongside education systems that are highly effective and well-funded.

尽管这些教培机构可能存在各种缺陷问题，但它们却与高效且资金充足的教育体系并存。

[Paragraph 3]

The hard way

艰难的道路

But now private tutoring is on the rise in poorer parts of Asia. The scale is huge.

但如今，亚洲贫困地区的课外辅导正在兴起，规模之大令人咋舌。

Although the data are scattered and shoddy, we have tried to estimate tutoring’s prevalence in South and South-East Asia, excluding Singapore.

尽管相关数据零散且质量不可靠，但我们还是尝试估算了南亚和东南亚（不包括新加坡）的课外补习普及率。

From Pakistan to Indonesia, we reckon that roughly 258m children get private tuition.

从巴基斯坦到印度尼西亚，我们估计大约有2.58亿儿童在上课外补习班。

[Paragraph 4]

The biggest market is in India. Fully 31% of rural Indian schoolchildren under 15 now get private tutoring, up from 23% in 2010; in some poorer states, three in four do (see chart).

印度是最大的市场。目前，印度农村地区15岁以下的学龄儿童中，有31%正在接受课外补习，高于2010年的23%；在一些更贫穷的邦，甚至有3/4的学童在接受课外补习（见图表）。

Tax revenue from Indian tutoring centres has more than doubled since 2019.

自2019年以来，印度补习中心的税收收入增长了一倍多。

But even removing India from the mix still leaves a tutoring tally of 131m children, by our estimate.

然而，即便我们将印度排除在外，仍有约1.31亿儿童在接受课外辅导。

 
[Paragraph 5]
The first reason for the growth is gaps left by formal education systems.
教培增长的第一个原因是正规教育体系留下的空白。

In poorer parts of Asia, the state often struggles to provide good schools.
在亚洲较贫困地区，政府往往难以提供优质学校。

In this century, as primary education has neared universality, the share of children enrolled in secondary school rose by 24 points in South Asia and by 16 percentage points in the rest of Asia, according to the World Bank.
据世界银行统计，进入本世纪以来，随着初等教育的普及，南亚地区中学入学率提高了24个百分点，亚洲其他地区提高了16个百分点。

Yet over the same period, government education spending as a share of GDP has stagnated or fallen across much of the region.
然而，在同一时期，这些地区的教育支出占GDP的比例却并未得到相应的提升，甚至在部分地区还出现了下降的趋势。

[Paragraph 6]
In many places this has led to cuts to teachers’ salaries and textbooks.
在许多地方，这种情况导致了教师薪资和教材费用的削减。

In Cambodia, one of Asia’s poorest countries, an estimated 82% of students take private tutoring, mostly from their own low-paid teachers seeking a salary top-up.
以亚洲最贫困的国家之一柬埔寨为例，据估计有82%的学生在课外补习，而这些补习往往是由他们自己的低薪教师提供的，这些教师希望通过这种方式来增加收入。

Yet many Asian systems sort children through high-stakes exams. So parents turn to tutors.
然而，许多亚洲国家都通过重要考试来选拔学生。因此，家长们纷纷求助于家教。

 [Paragraph 7]
A second factor is heightened social competition, driven by a growing middle class and a greater demand for a limited number of university places.
第二个因素是社会竞争加剧，这背后是不断扩大的中产群体和对有限大学名额的更大需求。

Urbanisation also plays a role: children in cities are likelier to get private tutoring than rural ones, thanks to the greater supply of tutors and better internet access.
城市化也起到了推波助澜的作用：由于城市里的家教供应更多、互联网接入也更好，城市儿童比农村儿童更有可能接受课外补习。

In India, where cities have added 200m residents in 20 years, many newly urbanised parents think that buying their children tutoring will help them get a professional-class job.
在印度，城市人口在20年内激增了2亿，许多新城市居民的家长认为，为孩子购买课外辅导服务有助于他们获得更好的职业机会。

 [Paragraph 8]
The final factor is an arms-race dynamic. Private tutoring is an anxiety industry: if your neighbour’s children get private tutoring and yours don’t, they risk falling behind.
最后一个因素是一种类似于军备竞赛的动态效应。课外补习是一个贩卖焦虑的行业：如果你邻居的孩子都在上课外辅导班，而你的孩子没有，那么你的孩子就有可能落后。

This holds whether tutoring demand originates from the pressures of a rigorous schooling system or the desire to flee a failing one.
无论补习需求是源于严格的学校教育体系的压力，还是源于逃离失败教育体系的渴望，都是如此。

The availability of online tutoring, supercharged by the pandemic, has made it easier to get in on that arms race.
疫情期间，在线辅导的普及进一步加剧了这种军备竞赛般的补习趋势。

 [Paragraph 9]
Even so, research measuring the effectiveness of tutoring has produced mixed results, says Mark Bray, an expert on Asian private tutoring. Partly this is because of its enormous diversity.
亚洲私人辅导专家马克·布雷表示，即便如此，衡量补习效果的研究结果喜忧参半。部分原因是补习形式极为多样。

One study in rural India found that students who had private tuition got higher reading and maths scores than those who did not, on a par with an extra year of school.
在印度农村进行的一项研究显示，接受课外补习的学生在阅读和数学成绩上明显高于未接受补习的学生，相当于多上了一年学。

But other research, in Sri Lanka and China, finds little or no effect on results.
然而，在斯里兰卡和中国进行的其他研究却发现，课外补习对学习成绩的影响微乎其微，甚至没有影响。

 [Paragraph 10]
Another brick in the wall
又一个经济负担

The costs of private tutoring can be large. Studies show some children in private tutoring sleep less well.The stresses extend to parents’ wallets.
课外补习的费用可能很高。有研究表明，一些参加课外补习的孩子睡眠质量下降。这种经济压力也延伸到了家长的钱包上。

 [Paragraph 11]
One big worry is that in some places private tutoring is eroding public education.
一个重大隐忧是，在一些地方，课外补习正在逐渐侵蚀公共教育的根基。

In Nepal and Cambodia, schoolteachers withhold parts of the curriculum for their own paid tutoring after school.
在尼泊尔和柬埔寨，学校教师会保留部分课程，在课后进行有偿补习。

In Bihar, India’s poorest state, a recent survey by JJSS, an NGO, found that dozens of dilapidated government schools had almost entirely outsourced their educational functions to private centres.
在印度最贫穷的比哈尔邦，非政府组织JJSS最近的一项调查发现，几十所破败的公立学校几乎完全将教育职能外包给了补习中心。

Government schools have been reduced to “merely providing a midday meal and arranging examinations”.
公立学校已经沦为“仅仅提供午餐和安排考试”的场所。

 [Paragraph 12]
What to do? South Korea spent four decades trying and failing to suppress private tutoring, before such efforts were ruled unconstitutional in 2000.
该怎么办？韩国花了40年时间试图取缔课外补习，但都以失败告终，最终在2000年被裁定为违宪。

Some governments are relaxed: the education ministry in Thailand says that “the state must begin with an assumption that private tutoring does not reduce social welfare.”
有些国家持宽松态度：泰国教育部表示，“国家必须首先假定课外补习不会损害社会福利。”

Others are experimenting. In response to a recent string of suicides, this year India’s education ministry introduced rules banning bigger coaching centres from enrolling students aged younger than 16.
还有一些国家正在试验。针对最近发生的一连串自杀事件，印度教育部今年出台了规定，禁止大型教培中心招收16岁以下的学生。

Private tuition is here to stay. But it could be managed more effectively.
课外补习将继续存在，但可以对其进行更有效的监管。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇999左右，有删减）
原文出自：2024年9月21日《TE》Asia版块
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理: Irene
本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【重点句子】（3个）
These businesses, whatever their flaws, exist alongside education systems that are highly effective and well-funded.
尽管这些教培机构可能存在各种缺陷问题，但它们却与高效且资金充足的教育体系并存。

A second factor is heightened social competition, driven by a growing middle class and a greater demand for a limited number of university places.
第二个因素是社会竞争加剧，这背后是不断扩大的中产群体和对有限大学名额的更大需求。

The final factor is an arms-race dynamic. Private tutoring is an anxiety industry: if your neighbour’s children get private tutoring and yours don’t, they risk falling behind.
最后一个因素是一种类似于军备竞赛的动态效应。课外补习是一个贩卖焦虑的行业：如果你邻居的孩子都在上课外辅导班，而你的孩子没有，那么你的孩子就有可能落后。