Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news

In families with children aged below 18, education expenses account for nearly a quarter of total household income, according to the latest survey of families and education in Shanghai. The survey was conducted by the Shanghai Women's Federation and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
The proportion is much higher than that of ten percent recorded in the United States and Canada.
The survey, of 986 local families, is the largest of its kind to be conducted in Shanghai for some years. Most parents consider moral qualities, psychological and physical health as the three most important criteria in evaluating a families educational standing, with psychological health replacing study achievements in first place for the first time.
However, parents' high expectations for their children's educational credentials show that they still cannot avoid the influence of exam-oriented education. Nearly 42 percent of local parents expect their children to have at least a university degree, followed by those expecting a Master's degree (23.6 percent) and a PhD degree (16.3 percent).
For families with children aged from 0 to 6 and 12 to 18, moral standing, study and psychological development are considered the three most important education tasks facing their families; for those with children aged from 7 to 11, study ranks No.1, followed by moral standing and physical health and for those with adult children aged from 18 to 25, moral standing and psychological health are considered most important, followed by study.
Keeping in step with social developments, local parents began to focus on education relating to the economy, Internet, physiological health and knowledge of AIDS and drugs.