After the opening of a high school in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, the school started charging high school students 723 yuan for printing homework assignments, sparking discussions and hitting the trending topics on Baidu on February 16th.
According to reports from Benliu News, on February 13th, a netizen from Shanxi posted a video on social media titled “Taihua High School in Taiyuan City Requires 723 Yuan for Printing Homework During Winter Break”. The video showed that Taihua High School in Taiyuan City required students to pay 723 yuan for printing homework assignments during the winter break. The netizen stated that the quality of the printing paper was very poor.
Other netizens revealed in the comments that the school charged 723 yuan per high school freshman for printing fees, while sophomores and seniors were charged 776 yuan and 826 yuan respectively. Furthermore, the school only accepted cash payments.
In response to this, the Jinci District Committee Propaganda Department in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province released a statement on their WeChat public account “Jinci District News” on February 14th, indicating that the Jinci District Education and Sports Bureau in Taiyuan City had launched an investigation team to look into the issue of “Taihua High School collecting 723 yuan for printing homework assignments at the beginning of the school year” as reported online.
The release of this statement has drawn attention and sparked discussions among netizens.
Netizen “Tian Dao Can Jin” commented, “That’s really shady. It’s better to just buy a printer yourself, it doesn’t cost much.”
“Girl HideNSeek” also remarked, “Over 700 yuan may not seem like a lot to some families, but for rural households, this could be equivalent to the combined wages of both parents working in the fields for three days.”
Some netizens also shared opinions on the school’s cash-only policy.
“Only Love This Flourishing Age” said, “Accepting only cash payments, clearly they know what they’re doing.”
“tmj101sohu” added, “Accepting only cash payments, so they can’t be audited, right?”
User “178******55” questioned, “Why are some people afraid of getting married and having children? This could be one of the reasons.”