Chinese homeschool students embrace freer youth in cutthroat market

Estella, 14, a homeschooled student, holds a rope in an indoor rock climbing in Shanghai on November 25, 2025. A small number of parents in China who are rethinking the country's rigorous education system, in which school days can last 10 hours, with students often working late into the evening on extra tutoring and homework. - AFP

SHANGHAI: Fourteen-year-old Estella spends her weekdays studying Spanish, rock climbing or learning acupuncture in her living room as part of her homeschooling since she left China's gruelling public school system.

Her parents withdrew her from her Shanghai school three years ago, worried she was struggling to keep up with a demanding curriculum they believe will soon be outdated in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).