Dahe Daily·Yu Video Reporter Du Qianwen Photographed by Bai Zhoufeng "Don't let your children waste a single point!" This slogan of the college entrance examination volunteer consulting agency moved Li Ping, a parent of Zhengzhou candidates, willing to pay 4,980 yuan to sign up f

Dahe Daily·Yu Video Reporter Du Qianwen Photography Bai Zhoufeng

"Don't let your children waste a single point!"

This slogan of the College Entrance Examination Volunteer Consulting Agency made Li Ping, a parent of Zhengzhou candidates, willing to pay 4,980 yuan to sign up for a one-on-one college entrance examination volunteer Planner Consulting Services.

Chen Yang, a parent of a student taking the art exam, also bought a membership to an APP that provides college entrance examination volunteer analysis services on the first day his child’s scores were announced, spending 699 yuan. When asked why he did not choose the offline "1-to-1" consulting service, Chen Yang said: "The charging standard for art candidates is much higher than that of others. It is calculated based on the 1,500 yuan recommended for a school." According to the undergraduate batch Art candidates can apply for 11 volunteers (32 volunteers in advance and 39 parallel volunteers in the undergraduate batch). A complete offline volunteer consultation service costs 16,500 yuan.

Data from the Ministry of Education shows that the number of people registering for the college entrance examination in 2022 will reach 11.93 million. Tens of millions of people will face the same problem after the college entrance examination results are released: Which university to go to? What major should I choose?

Starting from this demand, a huge college entrance examination volunteer application filling service market came into being.

Relevant data shows that nearly 90% of my country’s existing college entrance examination application-related companies were established within five years, and their market size increased 5.8 times from 2016 to 2022. So, what kind of "mystery" is hidden behind the college entrance examination application filling industry that has doubled its market size in a short period of time?

(After the college entrance examination, how to apply for a good choice has become the most anxious topic for parents)

Behind the fancy data and advertisements: the integration of enrollment data and information of various colleges and universities in recent years

"Don't let children waste a single point", "100% guarantee "", "As long as you are willing to spend money, college entrance examination volunteer planners provide exclusive services for your children"... these advertising slogans are everywhere around parents of candidates. Educational institutions that provide voluntary services for college entrance examinations use eye-catching slogans to accurately capture the psychological needs of candidates' parents.

"I trust this institution very much. It promises not to let my children waste a single point." Li Ping's children just took the college entrance examination this year, and their scores ranked more than 50,000 in the province's science subjects. Li Ping and his wife were anxious about their child's grades. "I want him to use his existing scores to try his best to go to a better school." After a friend introduced him, Li Ping contacted a company that specializes in college entrance examination volunteer application services. educational institutions. The slogan of this organization is: Don’t let your children waste a point. "This sentence speaks to my heart." Li Ping did not hesitate and spent 4,980 yuan to sign up.

Sheng Nan, a parent of a candidate in Luoyang , faced the same problem. Her child performed abnormally this year, and his college entrance examination score was only 1 point higher than the first-tier liberal arts school in Henan Province. She believes in herself more when it comes to filling in the application form for her children. "I don't trust these institutions. I think the data they provide can be found on the school's official website or Baidu . There is no need to spend so much money on these institutions."

Currently, Sheng Nan is spending 300 yuan on the school I bought the "Friends of Admissions and Examination" and the information found on the Internet, as well as calling the admissions offices of various colleges and universities to fill in the applications for my children. Sheng Nan, who has had contact with these college entrance examination volunteer application filling service agencies, believes that the schools recommended by these organizations are too conservative, "They are not really considering the path suitable for my child."

It is understood that the college entrance examination volunteer consulting services currently provided on the market Basically, it can be divided into two categories: one is to purchase volunteer application cards online, and use electronic volunteer application tools to recommend schools and majors to candidates and parents; the other is to purchase one-on-one expert consultation online or offline Services, teachers who specialize in college entrance examination volunteer consultation will help fill in the application form based on student scores and provincial rankings. The prices of

are very different: the price of the former ranges from 100 to 1,000 yuan, while the price of the latter will fluctuate greatly depending on factors such as subject category, institution size, faculty, etc. According to incomplete statistics, the price of this service It is roughly in the range of 3,000-18,000 yuan, and shows an increasing trend every year.

Chen Yang, a parent who has both purchased the “Volunteer Application Card” and contacted the one-to-one college entrance examination volunteer planner service, said: “In fact, the data provided by both are similar.However, during one-to-one service, these planners will explain it to parents again in their own language. "

Chen Yang then added: "To be honest, I can find the reference data provided by these two methods on the Internet. "

It is understood that these two methods of providing college entrance examination volunteer application services require a common tool: the support of a big data model. To this end, Dahe Daily·Yu Video reporter contacted a headquarters as a "franchise" A company in Tianjin that can provide relevant data.

"If it is a province with the old college entrance examination system, this set of data from your province will be sold to you in a package for 4,000 yuan; if it is a province with the new college entrance examination system, our data will be sold for 6,000 yuan. "Manager Wang of this company told reporters that the data provided by the company can be understood as integrating the admission scores and rankings of admitted students in the province over the past three years in colleges and universities across the country, and using data analysis to provide college entrance examination candidates with A company that provides consulting services provides data support.

Manager Wang said: "The format of our data presentation will be a little more fancy, but overall it is an integration of enrollment data from various colleges and universities in the past three years. "

"College Entrance Examination Volunteer Planner" is difficult to distinguish between true and false, "three weeks of quick work" before taking up a short-term part-time job

According to data released by enterprise Chacha , from 2016 to 2022, the market for filling in and paying for college entrance examination volunteers has increased by 5.8 times. 2021 The annual market size reaches 790 million yuan and is expected to reach 880 million yuan in 2022. In addition, there are 2,033 college entrance examination application filling-related companies in my country, nearly 90% of which were established in the past five years. In a rapidly developing industry, the "professional" teachers hired within the college entrance examination application filling industry are in a mixed situation.

According to industry insiders, the so-called college entrance examination volunteer planners who provide one-on-one services are basically composed of two types: one. Teachers who have been engaged in enrollment work for many years, or retired teachers who need to be anonymous, these teachers have relatively sufficient relevant experience; the other type is the "professional" group who claim to have a professional skills certificate - "College Entrance Examination Volunteer Planner" . And almost all companies that provide one-on-one college entrance examination volunteer application services will use the "College Entrance Examination Volunteer Planner" certificate as proof of their high professionalism.

But is this really the case?

The reporter contacted a company that claimed to be " "College Entrance Examination Volunteer Planner" is an educational institution that has been training for 21 years and asked about the certification.

The customer service staff said: "As long as you have a college degree and pay 6,980 yuan for three weeks of classes, you can get a certificate from China Management Science The college entrance examination volunteer planner professional skills certificate issued by the college . "Subsequently, the customer service staff showed the reporter the cover image of the certificate, and the words "vocational skills certificate" and " Institute of Talent Strategy, China Academy of Management Sciences " were indeed printed on the home page.

However, in many previous media reports It is mentioned that the Ministry of Education has stated that relevant departments have never issued professional qualification certificates such as "College Entrance Examination Volunteer Planner". In other words, organizations that provide exclusive college entrance examination volunteer services under the name of "College Entrance Examination Volunteer Planner" are based on this. In fact, the "resume capital" is not recognized by the formal departments of the country.

So, do "professional" teachers who can basically get a certificate after paying for training for three weeks have any hard power?

Li Ping, a parent of a student, said: "I contacted This teacher is very professional. He was able to provide a lot of information that I didn't know. I think he still has some experience in the industry. But Chen Yang, a student parent, said: "The college entrance examination volunteer planner I contacted used the same words to deal with me. He just wanted me to pay the money as soon as possible." "

And today - the eighth day after the college entrance examination scores were released, there are still many posts on a recruitment APP about recruiting "high-recruitment" volunteer consultants. The basic requirements listed by most companies are: having a "college entrance examination volunteer planner" Certificates are preferred, college degree or above, no work experience required, short-term part-time work is allowed.

It can be seen from this that in the one-to-one college entrance examination volunteer planning service, after parents pay the high price, the consultants they face with the "College Entrance Examination Volunteer Planner" certificate are likely to have no formal undergraduate education. "Professionals" who have only received three weeks of short-term training before taking up the job, have no work experience, and only work short-term part-time jobs.

In this regard, Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said: "Parents who choose this service must pay attention to screening, choose service agencies objectively and rationally, and do not be blinded by their false propaganda."

The real demand is still Pseudo demand? Some industry insiders believe that most students do not need to purchase such services.

According to data released by Qichacha, there are large differences in the number of companies established in various provinces to fill in the college entrance examination application form. Hebei ranked first with 1,546 companies related to college entrance examination applications; Inner Mongolia and Shandong ranked second and third respectively; Henan ranked sixth with 29 companies.

As a senior high school teacher in a provincial-level model high school in a certain tertiary city, Wang Yuyan has a personal opinion on the existence value of this industry: "If you are a parent of candidates who has accumulated relevant experience in filling out relevant college entrance examination application forms, in fact, there is no need at all. Purchase this kind of service. But for parents who don’t know anything about college entrance examination applications, perhaps paying for consultation is the fastest way to make up for the exam.” Li Ping, a parent of

candidates, also agrees with this view: “My child’s father and I both agree. It’s a liberal arts major, and we don’t know much about science majors or science schools, so we can only go to these external institutions to recommend schools for us, and leave professional matters to professionals.”

The same problem also plagues the art exam. Chen Yang, a student’s parent, the first way he thought of at that time was to consult his child’s class teacher. But the answer he got was - the class teacher said: "I recommended to you a teacher who provides voluntary college entrance examination consulting services outside the school."

Chen Yang was helpless and could only be forced to contact the paid service agency recommended by the child's class teacher. , "The price they said is ridiculously high. The one-to-one college entrance examination volunteer planner service actually costs more than 10,000 yuan." According to Chen Yang, the voluntary application filling service for art candidates is calculated at 1,500 yuan per subject, including advance approval. There are a total of 11 volunteers to fill in.

Regarding this issue, Teacher Xiao Chen, who has been engaged in college entrance examination voluntary application filling services for more than 2 years, revealed to reporters: "To be honest, most candidates do not need to purchase such services. As long as they compare the recent three according to their personal scores and rankings, Parents and students can have a basic understanding of the schools that they can apply for based on the admission status of the year, and then they can check the school information themselves and call the admissions offices of various places to ask, which is enough to help them fill in their applications. ”

Teacher Xiao Chen has now withdrawn from this industry, but people still often come to him for consultation on college entrance examination registration. He believes that the current charges for this service are indeed ridiculously high. Charging four to five thousand "I think is a bit unconscionable."

Teacher Xiao Chen believes that although the college entrance examination application form industry is developing rapidly, parents' demand for college entrance examination application forms is actually a "pseudo demand."

"From the moment a student's college entrance examination scores come out, the school he can choose is actually fixed. As long as he is based on the previous school admissions segments, combined with the child's interests and hobbies, and carefully consults the relevant information, he can choose the school. ." Teacher Xiao Chen said.

In addition, regarding the institution’s promise of “100% guarantee”, Teacher Xiao Chen said that this is just an operational skill and the risk can be controlled. For example, for a student ranked 100,000 in the province, the last application he filled in was ranked 15th in the past. If you go to a school with tens of thousands of times, it can basically guarantee that students will not slip. When

reporters previously interviewed an organization that provides one-on-one college entrance examination application filling services, they asked whether the organization would provide compensation if students volunteered to slip. The organization’s customer service staff said: “If it really slips, we will provide you with a free service of filling in and soliciting volunteer services."

(Career planning training for high school students is receiving more and more attention)

The rapid development of the paid market highlights the lack of career planning education for middle school students

"The development of this industry just shows the lack of career planning education in contemporary schools. "Xiong Bingqi, dean of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said that as far as he knows, most schools now do not carry out career planning education courses for students, which results in students being passive when filling in the school and major for the college entrance examination. "This has given this industry The development provides an 'opportunity'. "

In this regard, the reporter interviewed a high school teacher who teaches in Chengdu and a high school teacher in a sub-provincial city in central .

The high school teacher in Chengdu said that the school where he teaches has never offered any career courses After the college entrance examination, there are only 1-2 lectures for college entrance examination students to fill in their application. The teacher said: "This has very little effect on students' application. "

A high school teacher in a sub-provincial city in central China said that the school will start offering a one-school-year career planning course for high school students in 2020, which will be held every two weeks. But the teacher said: "This does not It has not done much to change the confusion of students and parents when applying for schools and choosing majors. This may be related to the fact that there are few courses and not enough professionalism. "

In this regard, Dean Xiong Bingqi said: "In fact, most schools do not provide complete explanation services to students and parents before students fill out their college entrance examination applications, which results in many parents knowing nothing about the relevant content. However, educational institutions in society can provide a large amount of filtered information in a short period of time, which of course can quickly gain the trust of parents. "Dean Xiong Bingqi emphasized that the school's lack of service in the college entrance examination application form is the main reason for this phenomenon.

In addition, President Xiong Bingqi also believes that public opinion's "hype" of misconceptions also provides consultation for the college entrance examination application form. Institutions provide the soil for survival.

"Today's media likes to advocate that a certain student "misses out" and gets into a prestigious school. They think that getting into the school with the lowest score is a sign of respect for their score. But does this really mean that the candidates’ scores were not wasted? Dean Xiong Bingqi then asked two rhetorical questions to explain: "I entered the university with "cut-off" scores, but lost the right to freely choose my major. Isn't this a waste of marks? On the contrary, if you are admitted to this university with a score of 30% in high school, but you can choose your favorite major, does this mean that you have wasted your grades? ”

In fact, this concept of “picking up omissions” often appears in reports from various media, and is deeply rooted in the concepts of current parents and students. This public opinion environment provides opportunities for the development of the college entrance examination volunteer reporting industry. President Xiong said: "Our entire society needs changes from the inside out to push forward the college entrance examination application form." healthy development of the industry. "(The parents of the candidates in the article are pseudonyms)

Source: Dahe Daily·Yu Video Editor: Ding Fenglin