Source: China News Weekly
Author: Li Mingzi
Two days before the college entrance examination in 2023, early in the morning, Beijing South Railway Station was full of waves of student groups who went out of provincial research.In just one hour, hundreds of people from five primary and secondary schools stepped on trains to Shanghai, Huangshan and other places.
"Now it is a small peak before the summer vacation. Many schools have been selected as the test room and cannot be in class. It happens to be studying."The school's research team entered the station.Coupled with the summer business, there are 28 research groups he undertaked to Shanghai. "There are at least 500 companies in Beijing in Beijing alone."
Soon after, the research team from other places to Beijing will also pour into Beijing like a tide."Throughout the summer, except for the suburbs such as Mentougou, the hotels in Beijing almost couldn't set up batch rooms for a while. The hotel feedback said that they were all packaged by the research group." A consultant of an educational institution for more than 10 years said.
"Qingbei Campus Tour" is one of the hottest products in the summer.Su Yu, the person in charge of Beijing Research and Travel Service Co., Ltd. told China News Weekly that more than half of the consultation calls received in recent periods, more than half of them proposed to visit Tsinghua and Peking University campuses.Su Yu observed that since its first time in more than 20 years ago, the "college tour" products have not changed much, and the problem of homogeneity is serious.Some institutions just bring children from Beijing to school to walk around, take pictures, and go to the cafeteria for dinner.
After the epidemic, "college tour" became more difficult, but still could not stop the research groups that showed their magical powers.Most colleges and universities restrict off -school personnel entering. Taking Tsinghua University as an example, only special groups such as alumni have been admitted to the school to visit. They also need to make an appointment in advance to enter with their ID cards."The organizer sent the child to the campus through various private relations. In order not to be discovered, he could not make flags, do not let unified clothing, and mix it in zero, three or five places.What can I learn? "Su Yu admitted that the organizer focused on the establishment channels, not the content design.
Under the school's promotion and pursuit of parents, the research market has expanded rapidly in recent years, but the industry is chaotic.The China Research Travel Development Report 2021 summarizes the pain points of several industries such as curriculum, funding, talent, and security.The most significant performance is "swimming without learning, high prices and low prices", and whether there are relatively hidden problems such as false propaganda or hidden safety hazards, it is difficult for consumers to notice it as soon as possible.
After theDouble Subtraction "policy was introduced, parents who originally gave their children to study extra -curriculum tuned for studying at their studies, but in the face of overwhelming advertisements, most parents could not clearly understand the concept of" research travel ".Is it worth the money to study?How should I design and pricing in the study group in the middle of education and the market?In the eyes of many interviewees, the variation of "high -priced research groups" has made research change.
"I take the school as a garden, and the school treats me as a pig"
In mid -April this year, a Foshan parents with a net name "Sun Kongkong" sent 12 questions on the study "chaos" of their children's school.Cause widespread attention.
Private schools that his daughter studies organized elementary school students to "micro -study" in Hong Kong for five days, charging 5980 yuan (RMB, Same, S $ 1124), which is much higher than the actual purchase price of the itinerary.The content and itinerary of "research" are extremely vague, which only mentioned the "Hong Kong Leadership Training Course", "Hong Kong School Visiting and Exchange Course" and "Hong Kong Science and Technology Course".EssenceIn addition, Sun Kongkong also proposed whether the agreement has the overlord clause, how to ensure the safety of students, and the personal number of the charging account.
"Is it really voluntary to participate in this event? Or is it forced in a voluntary name? Will students who don't participate in this event will be treated special?"Is it a survey? This may involve more than 1.93 million projects, and it also involves so many students' safe activities. It must be to choose large and experienced companies. Among them, it involves bidding. So does the school do this? "Parents "Sun Kongkong" blame in the video, "I treat the school as a garden, and the school treats me as a pig."
After interviews, the school responded to Sun Kongkong's questions and canceled research travel activities."I no longer express any opinions and opinions on the study tour." Sun Kongkong replied to China News Weekly. "Studies are the hard requirements put forward by the Education Commission.
Research travel is indeed one of the requirements of the competent education department.In November 2016, the opinions of primary and secondary school students were officially released.The requirements of the 11 departments issued by the Ministry of Education (hereinafter referred to as the opinions) issued by the 11 departments of the Ministry of Education (hereinafter referred to as the opinion), incorporated research travel into the school education and teaching plan, considers the overall consideration of comprehensive practice activities, and promoted the organic integration of research travel and school curriculum.
"Before that, many institutions had exposed the bottom -up exploration of research, and after 2016, the institutional promotion and construction of research travel became from top to bottom.The compulsory courses of research have brought tremendous changes to both education systems and industries. "Zhang Yang analyzed Zhang Yang, an associate researcher of the Industry Institute of China Tourism Research Institute and editor -in -chief of the development report of the China Travel Service Industry.
However, the opinions also emphasize that it is necessary to carefully design the study and study travel activities, so as to achieve high intentions, clear goals, vivid activities, effective learning, avoid "traveling only" or "only to learn".
Zheng Fei's son has participated in the study organized by the school since the third grade of elementary school, went to the aquarium to see the growth of whales, and visited Dingyuan Ship for ideological education.Seeing that the child is having fun and going home safely, Zheng Fei is also willing to try more research products.There are not a few parents with the same concept as Zheng Fei. As long as the children have fun and safe, they may be repurchased.
"The study itself is meaningful, but it is not ruled out that some institutions have taken the psychology of holding their parents' but asking their children to be safe and happy."It may be lower. "Yan Chu, a consultant of educational institutions that founded the above more than 10 years, said that for children in first -tier cities, bringing out a firework, ordering a gun, and catching two bugs at night, you can be very happy to have fun., Then packaged into "natural practice"."The question is, is this called research?"
In February 2021, when the Beijing Municipal Education Commission issued a notice on strengthening the management of primary and secondary schools in the city, it was pointed out that it was not possible to conduct a disguised tour in the name of organizing research travel to ensure that students "traveling", "traveling", "traveling for travel"Learn "to avoid" not learning only ".
When a parent finds that the agency "goes out and play with the child with the name", it will naturally make a question of "price is much more expensive than pure travel".
"Studies are also one of the very few projects that can charge parents at present." Yan Chu admitted that the subsidy of Beijing is 100 yuan per student, but local policies are different. Many provinces do not have this in this place.Subsidies and costs are all issued by parents. Some schools have been studied four times a year. The winter and summer vacations and spring and autumn travel. Each student has a one -year research investment of 20,000 yuan. "Many parents are almost collapsed."
Geng Lei, a staff member of the Liaoning Museum, disclosed in the essay of the new phenomenon of study tourism in the city of the city. Although the museum study tourism is lower than the tens of thousands of yuan in overseas study tourism programs, it is actually considered a long -term fee.At least one or two days for the museum's study tour at least one or two thousand yuan. Some activities will charge 400 yuan to 600 yuan for two hours of explanation.Most public museums in China have been open for free since 2008. The institutions have taken people to visit the museum and have almost no ticket costs. However, they have to collect a lot of tuition fees from students and parents, which can be called "one thousand profits".
Because there is basically no entry threshold for the research market, the organizational institutions have come to profit, and fish and dragons are mixed, and the levels are uneven.Geng Lei wrote an example. In terms of museum research, many leaders of the leading teams knew about the cultural relics and explained the loopholes, or simply explained to the cultural relics.What's more bad is that the displayed cultural relics "Zhang Guanli Dai" and instilling error information to students.Some institutions simply "explore and discover" in the exhibition hall, let students take the "task card" to shuttle in the venue, and find the answer to fill in the blanks themselves, not only disrupting the normal order of public places, affecting the exhibition of others, but also hidden safety hazards.
The hidden problem of difficult to prevent
There are also some products that "scientific science in the Chinese Academy of Sciences" and "face -to -face with scientists". In fact, they are going to a restaurant open to an institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to eat a meal, or to study in the Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Even more, the banner of "follow the academician" also played."Sorry for the Chinese Academy of Sciences every day", and Wang Hu's pattern of Beijing Minimally Invasive Bozhi Education Technology Co., Ltd. for example.
In addition, there are many pseudo -research products on the market, such as "selling dog meat", such as "seven days of fast -growing pearl calculation research camp"."Parents should also be vigilant, correct their mentality, and maintain reasonable expectations for research." Yan Chu said that this kind of rapid class has taken the eager psychology of Parents Panzi Jackie Chan. On the other hand, most of them are enrollment of training institutions."Strange trick".Some extracurricular tuition classes cannot recruit students after the "double reduction" was introduced, and they "studied" traffic on the name. Through the pseudo -research activity, it was used as a tuition class to drain.The AI label is the same. "
"Studies are such non -standard products that cannot explore virtual reality without experience." Yu Huiqing, a research travel instructor of Zhongxin Tourism Group, said that the customers of research projects can be divided into two categories, and "schools" are big.Customers are mainly based on the amount of volume. After layers of review by the parents, schools, and education committees, relatively speaking, it is more guaranteed in terms of quality, price, and safety.Essence
Compared with quality and price issues, parents are most concerned about relatively hidden security risks."After returning from the study trip, several children had high fever or vomiting and diarrhea; the summer camp encountered obscenity, scolding and abuse; the child was fractured by the coach of the summer camp martial arts ..." In recent years, the problem of studying travel safety has been frequently exposed.
On August 5, 2021, the China Expedition Association issued a statement saying that an accident occurred in the teentest desert adventure project organized by the association, and a 16 -year -old child died unexpectedly.Jiang Mou, deputy secretary -general of the China Expedition Association, and Wang, who led Zheng Zheng, the leader of the desert, was investigated for the crime of suspected major liability accidents.The court filed a public prosecution.On March 22 this year, the case was tried in the trial of the Alashan League Zuoqi People's Court in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The case was not sentenced in court.
"The judgment of responsibility is a very complicated process. It can only be said that it has awakened the industry again. Each family should try to develop research lines in combination with its own advantages. For new products, we must repeatedly discuss it.express.
In the standard research travel service specifications released by the tourism industry in 2016, it is stipulated that "at least one security officer should be configured for each research travel team."In place, the key depends on the implementation of the institution.
Yu Huiqing once planned a hiking activity of "turning over Gaoligong". Considering the physical level of middle school students today, and after the school repeatedly discussed, the original "more than 30 kilometers hike" was changed to "round -trip and round -trip" to "round -trip" to "round -trip and round -trip" to "round -trip" to "round -trip" to "round -trip" to "round -trip and round -trip"If you feel uncomfortable, you can withdraw at any time if you feel uncomfortable.On the day of the event, three students withdrew the road halfway due to plateau reactions. Due to a full plan in advance, all members finally returned safely.
"Can you guarantee that your child does not leave the leader's sight, does it have a plan to deal with emergency situations in a timely manner, and what are the mobilized resources around?" Every time I go to the scene in advance, Yu Huiqing will repeated these questions.The research products she currently has clearly requires clear requirements for age. For example, children under 8 years of age not only fly, but only do parent -child travel."Life is closed, it is better to be more conservative." Yu Huiqing said.
"Many current understanding of the chaos of research travel, there are situations where the surface is not deep enough." At the "Status, Challenge and Future" seminar held in Beijing in 2019, the Chairman of the People's Literature Travel Tank,Chief researcher Wu Ruoshan has given examples that everyone is more likely to find the chaos of the guidance of tour guides during the study travel, but they cannot find the essence of lack of norms and quality supervision behind them. It is easier to accuse travel agencies of problems.Insurance and other shortcomings.
Wu Ruoshan reminds that at the beginning of the start, relevant departments and scholars should strengthen the research and quality supervision of the essence of the chaos of research travel.If only the surface chaos is grasped and does not grasp the essence, then when the "small signs" and "small problems" grow up, the administrative cost of related governance will be very high.
Vague face, who will dominate
Recalling the beginning of the establishment of a research travel service company in 2017, Su Yu's biggest challenge is how to enter the school.
"To put it plainly, there is no connection." Su Yu explained that the market was not standardized at that time, and there were differences in the understanding of research on different schools.The final selected undertaking agencies do not necessarily win with curriculum products.
"Similar dark box operations are not individual phenomena." A person in charge of a travel agency who did not want to be named recalled that in the summer of 2018, friends and children participated in the school's research travel.In two days, each person charged more than 3,000 yuan. The gross profit margin of a group in a grade alone was nearly one million yuan.After the inquiry, I learned that the product did not take the bidding process, and parents and students did not have an alternative.What's more abnormal is that on the research manual, the cultural company that organized the event used a very small font, and could not be found without looking at it carefully."There is no need for such good publicity opportunities, most of them are greasy."
A popular hidden rule is that many schools use "research" as teachers' benefits."Change new routes every year." Yan Chu said that in order to retain big customers, the company had to rack his brains to design new courses and go to a more biased land.Curriculum development costs may also lead to other variables, such as various security risks."The biggest challenge is quotation and execution, and the focus of focusing to resource integration and transfer, not curriculum development."
"The final research plan depends on how the principals, teachers, parents, students and undertaking institutions are played." Yan Chu concluded that "research" involves many activities such as learning, tourism, and accommodation.The cross -zone of science and technology, cultural tourism, industry and commerce, etc. In the absence of strict entry thresholds, no unified norms, and no single clear supervisory entities, whoever leads to the selection of research activities can only be said to be magical.
Educational institutions where Yan Chu is located has received a well -known principal, advocating for students to design research and research routes as another case that encourages students to freely develop education concepts.Specifically, after several rounds of comparison, the students finally determined that the research location was in Xi'an, and after many searches, it was determined that the terracotta warriors, museums, and monumental forests were determined.Specific execution of tickets and other links.
"This is at most the student's independent design travel route, not study." Yan Chu said.In 2016, the 11 departments of the Ministry of Education and other 11 departments on promoting the study of primary and secondary school students were clearly defined. Research travel is a "out -of -school education activity combining research on research and travel experience."
"The so -called research learning must first propose assumptions, and then confirm or falsify through scientific experiments. The results of the research results are open -type, not fixed knowledge points." Ji Min, an educational consultant of a research institution in Beijing, believes thatHistorical and humanistic research should also have the basic spirit of scientific inquiry. For example, to see the Xi'an City Wall, students can think of it. Why is the ancient urban defense layout like this?
"Ask students to have good problems instead of blindly output." As the head of a science and technology innovation company, Ji Yan looks forward to "research" to make up for the absence of "scientific education" in traditional classroom education and cultivate studentsThe ability to think independently and scientific inquiry.
But the reality is that practitioners have not answered uniformly about "what is study".Several interviewees believe that passive learning during the trip is also a kind of study. "As long as you can inspire interest and gain, you are learning." A research instructor applies Tao Xingzhi to "life is education, society is school, that is, schools, that is, schools, schools,"Education theory believes that" what gestures are used to study for barbecue is also a kind of learning. "
The definition of "research" in various localities is not exactly the same.For example, the construction specifications of local standard research tourism demonstration bases in Jiangsu Province define research travel as "tourism realistic"Practicing activities", that is, relying on various cultural and tourism resources and facilities to promote the comprehensive development of people, aimed at strengthening cultural self -confidence, and carried out tourism practice activities that improved the comprehensive literacy of tourists and the quality of tourism experience.
The biggest chaos in the research market is to confuse the boundaries between studying and studying and traveling. "Ji Yan said that it brings the problem of" travel without learning ", and even allows consumers to define"It is not good for students, parents and industries.
Wang Hu pattern believes that the "travel+learning" model has been divided into different stages such as studying, research, and adventure from easy to difficult, and each performs its duties.For example, students who are in the first professional field for the first time in a certain professional field can start with studying and stimulate interest, and then start studying. After having a certain scientific literacy and skills, try to explore.
Compared with ordinary travel, the threshold for research learning is higher and boring.Wang Hu's pattern took an overseas study as an example. At that time, he invited the middle school science teacher of San Diego, USA to bring students for a week. Taking the influence of the cigarette butter on the environment. One of them was sampled to the long beach.The 1 -meter -wide side recipe picked up the cigarette butter, one was responsible for picking up, one was responsible for the record, and one person was measured accurately with the ruler."The fun of scientific research must go through a period of hard work first, and how many students will take the initiative to choose to suffer?"
During the research process, students hope to "play well". The first demand of parents is "absolute safety", "but real studies are suffering." Yan Chu said.Parents must be distressed when they see that their children are "dark and thin". Either change the institution next time or the institution will continue to increase the cost of accommodation and lodging, it will inevitably reduce the research and development of the curriculum."Basch pick -up", considering increasing the risk of transportation, it is likely to become a botanical one -day tour.
"Whether it is a travel agency that needs to enhance curriculum development capabilities, or an educational institution that needs to accumulate food and residential resources. If you want to do well in research products, you need to increase costs." Wang Hu's pattern is helpless.The study of the zone lacks the unified evaluation criteria for content.
Study on travel as a carrier, travel can be compared from the conditions and quotations of food, housing, and transportation, and eventually slipped to the issue of "which one is cost -effective" and ignored the content of "learning".
"The market is big, but everyone's awareness of research needs to be improved." Yan Chu said frankly that multiple research products in the company have won awards issued by educational institutions, but they are applauded.It is difficult to settle in the ground. What is really doing is business, not the most ideal education. "After all, institutions have to survive and make money."
Fast expansion research market
The industry will refer to 2016 as the "first year of research". Policy leverage demand, supply quickly, and the number of research companies has increased sharply.
The chairman of the China National People's Congress Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee, shared a set of data in a speech in March this year: the scale of research in 2019 increased to 4.8 million, and in 2021 reached 4.94 million, surpassing before the epidemic situationThe number of people in 2022 exceeded 6 million people, reaching a record high.This situation is the only one among other door categories, which shows the strong momentum of research travel needs.
According to the statistics of the China Research Travel Development Report issued by the China Tourism Research Institute, the research institutions have reached 30,699 in 2021.From the perspective of demand, there are currently more than 200 million potential consumer groups in the Chinese research market, and the potential market size exceeds 100 billion yuan, becoming a new blue ocean in the tourism market.
Aware of new opportunities, Su Yu, who has been in the industry for more than 20 years, immediately established a research company after the policy was introduced."To deal with the impact of online travel (OTA) on traditional tourism, research is one of the few categories that can make characteristics offline."
"The overall business of the travel agency sector has been shrinking after experiencing the impact of scattered passengerization. In other market segments, it is difficult to see a large -scale team travel model like studies.Business. "Zhang Yang analyzed that the current main subject is more diversified, mainly travel agencies, or independent research departments, branches, or directly transferred to specialized research enterprises.Language training institutions, camp base companies, etc.
After the "double reduction" policy was introduced in 2021, extracurricular education institutions also set their sights on the research market.Travel agencies, educational institutions, consulting institutions, etc. are scrambling to grab the beach research travel market.
The huge market has attracted many new players to enter this track.Taking New Oriental as an example, as early as 2005, New Oriental established an international study travel brand and gradually expanded domestic research and camp education.In October 2020, New Oriental invested in the global travel cultural content platform "San Maoyou" to further expand its territory in the field of research.Another teaching and training giant to learn (good future) invests in the establishment of a well -known parent -child tourism e -commerce platform "Lexue Camp" with a large number of research travel products.Netease is also involved in the research business. In November 2021, the establishment of Taoism (Hangzhou) Tourism Service Co., Ltd. was established with a registered capital of RMB 5 million.
The entry of K12 education companies and leading Internet companies that hold students have brought about the large -scale trend of the research market, but the "small scattered" pattern of the industry still has not fundamentally changed.Earlier, the tourism green paper jointly released by multiple institutions of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences 2018-2019 China Tourism Development analysis and outlook pointed out that the current research travel definition is blurred and the industry standards are not sound.As a result, the industry has low entry thresholds and incomplete exit mechanisms.The favorable policy has attracted a large number of institutions to enter the field of research. Considering the professionalism and standardization, these companies are inevitably "mixed with fish and dragons."
"Many institutions only pack up the previous overseas tourist routes, and then post the name of study." Ji Yan said that the market for studying overseas is even more chaotic, and ordering can also be counted as research.In fact, due to the differences in language level, cultural differences, and scientific research institutions prohibiting opening up to the outside world, it is more difficult to do overseas research than domestic.
But from the perspective of the institution that really wants to do research, money is not so profitable.A practitioner said that the same tourism costs are significantly higher. On the basis of traditional tourism, you must develop courses and textbooks in advance, match lecturers, textbooks, and coordinate the study venue that can accommodate a large number of student activities.Taking the provincial research of "two days and one night" as an example, the quotation to the school in Beijing is generally around 1,500 yuan. Excluding traffic and accommodation, only one or two hundred yuan per person.Tens of dollars.
After the epidemic, the research market has undergone a new round of market reshuffle.The above -mentioned practitioners revealed that from the beginning of the crown disease epidemic to April 2020, more than 17,000 companies in research travel have closed down, and new companies have been established.Many companies that lack core competitiveness have transformed or withdrawn after the epidemic, and the industry has been forced to shuffle, which has virtually improved the entry threshold.
China Research Travel Development Report 2022-2023 Statistics. In 2022, the number of research projects in domestic bidding projects decreased by 4.27 % compared with 2021, and the increase in newly established research enterprises in 2022 decreased significantly compared with 2021.
Zhang Yang reminded that the industry quickly recovered after the epidemic.
"There is a problem of unevenness and dispersion in the research travel market." Xun Shigang believes that it is necessary to attach great importance to the supervision of the research travel market."At present, the supervision of the research travel market in Singapore is not in place, which is fundamentally lacking standards. It is necessary to formulate research travel access standards, qualification standards, product standards, operating standards, content standards, etc., with standards, and strict supervision according to standards."
While waiting for relevant regulatory policies, head companies are also leading industry norms."Student travel is a market catalyzed, and many companies are fighting out a little bit." Su Yu said that in the early days of development in emerging markets, it is inevitable to encounter various problems.Cut off with a knife.
(at the request of the interviewees, Zheng Fei, Yan Chu, Ji Yan in the article are all pseudonyms)
