How can children avoid being overcharged for study tours and parents who can't take time off during spring break?

The longest consecutive holiday is 8 days! Many regions have announced arrangements for spring break for middle and primary school students. The moment the news about spring break came out, it sparked plenty of discussion. One parent even commented directly, asking: “Who will accompany them?” When children have spring break but parents don’t—who will take them? Spring-break anxiety is being experienced in countless families. The original purpose of spring break is to encourage children to go out and embrace spring, but once it falls into the predicament of “no one to take them,” the holiday turns into a burden, even pushing parents to spend needless money to buy so-called “solutions.”

A study in Wenzhou found that in the 2025 autumn holiday, as many as 42% of parents couldn’t accompany their children for more than two days, or were completely unable to do so, due to work conflicts. When children are preparing with great anticipation to embrace spring, parents are instead struggling over request forms for leave, and even being forced to spend needless money to buy so-called “solutions.” As a gift of spring to children, spring break should definitely be offered. But how to offer it must be practical.

Some places have already found a way forward. In Kunshan, Jiangsu, an electrical and mechanical enterprise added three days of paid spring break for all employees, without taking up annual leave or requiring leave rescheduling. The reason is plain yet moving: “Children need spring, and adults do do, too.” In places like Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and Hefei, Anhui, policies have also been rolled out one after another to encourage workers to take paid leave, prioritizing the alignment of spring and autumn leaves for them and their children. This shows that as long as the system keeps up, having parents accompany their children during spring break is not an unrealistic fantasy.

But there are also issues that warrant vigilance. Before spring break is even implemented, some commercial institutions have already sprung into action at the first sign. “High-end research-and-study camps” and “spring camps” costing several thousand yuan are appearing everywhere, with big, impressive names but heavily padded content. Some schools even “effectively force” students to participate in paid research-and-study programs—students who don’t join can only stay at school for self-study. This money-making behavior, exploiting spring break as a banner to extract profits, must be met with a firm warning.

To make spring break return to its original purpose, local efforts on multiple fronts are still needed.

First, having parents coordinate leave at the same time can’t just remain at the level of verbal encouragement. The paid leave system must be truly implemented. Especially in regions and units with the right conditions, flexible leave mechanisms linked to spring break should be explored. This is not adding trouble for enterprises—it provides an opportunity for constructive interaction between companies and employees’ families. Local governments should also adapt measures to local conditions, avoiding interruptions in social production caused by the new holiday arrangements. For staggered time off and shift-based scheduling, each region can coordinate them independently.

Second, crack down on those commercial study tours that claim to be for spring break but are actually for profit. As soon as the holiday arrives, “spring camps” costing thousands to tens of thousands of yuan spread across the board. They use the banner of “research and study,” but in practice it’s just changing the location where children are supervised. Parents feel heartache about paying, but if they don’t pay, no one will take care of the children. Relevant departments must establish admission and filing mechanisms, set rules for the study-tour content, fee standards, and instructor qualifications—so every yuan parents spend is worth it, and so children can truly embrace spring without having to compete with others, and can still gain real benefits.

Spring break is not meant to be a swap for childcare in another place, nor should it become a breeding ground for extracting exorbitant profits. Make spring break purer, make sure parents can actually accompany their children, make sure society can handle it, and make sure businesses operate with bottom lines—then spring break can truly belong to children, and also truly go further.

News reporter: Chen Rui

Editor: Chen Rui

Responsible editor: Gong Minghua