Five training centers aimed at teaching students to read at “quantum speed” have been ordered to close for operating without a proper business license.
The speed reading scheme was exposed last October with a news outlet’s visit to a Beijing classroom where kids took part in a competition, staring intently at books while flipping through the pages at lightning speed as proctors looked on.
One of the teachers claimed that the children are able to read 100,000 characters in between one to five minutes while completely retaining the information and being able to recite it back word-for-word.
She shows off texts from a purported parent who recounts how her child managed to read an entire book in just two minutes and 23 seconds.
This method of “quantum” speed reading was developed by a Japanese teacher named Yumiko Tobitani. She claims that the faster the flipping the better and that it even works for simultaneous translation.
“When you flip the pages of the book, images start to appear that helps you understand its contents,” she says. “Another wonderful thing is that even if the text is written in French, German, or English, it would be translated to your own language and connects to images so that you understand the book immediately.”
It’s reported that some parents in Beijing may have spent as much as 50,000 yuan ($7,000) on courses at the center.
In a statement released on Thursday, China’s Ministry of Education announced that five such training centers had been ordered to temporarily close and make improvements. It also called upon local governments to crack down on such institutions by launching investigations into false advertising.
