Is it true that tutoring has been banned in China?

In the summer of 2021, publications appeared in the media and social networks that the Chinese authorities had introduced serious restrictions on extracurricular activities. We checked what measures the leadership of the Celestial Empire took in reality.

Statements that tutors will be left without work in China starting from the new school year can be found in a variety of sources: from thematic groups "VKontakte" And Facebook to News Agency "Red Spring", from LiveJournal And Pikabu before the program "News". Although the authors of different publications draw attention to different aspects of this radical decision, they agree on one thing: private educational activity outside of public schools in China is now at least significantly limited, at most impossible.

July 19, 2021 General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Standing Committee of the State Council of the People's Republic of China sent local authorities a document that defines new principles in education. As the name suggests, the reform aims to “ease the burden of excessive homework and extracurricular activities for students in compulsory education.” July 24 document published State news agency Xinhua.

According to the proclaimed principles, a number of prohibitions are introduced for companies involved in extracurricular education. In particular, now such activities cannot be a business, and existing educational companies should be reorganized into non-profit organizations. They will not be able to attract investments (both local and foreign), go public and participate in mergers with foreign educational platforms. Institutions that do not comply with the new rules must make changes to their organizational structure. Investors who have invested in such companies appear to they won't be able to return the funds.

The new rules also apply directly to extracurricular activities. From now on, lessons related to the compulsory school curriculum cannot be held on weekends and holidays, as well as during school holidays. Any activities with children under six years of age are also prohibited. Also, teaching cannot be conducted according to foreign curricula, the work of foreigners is significantly limited, and the authorities plan to regularly check the content of lessons.

Due to the restrictions announced by the Chinese authorities, the local online education market, which has experienced rapid growth over recent years and was especially strengthened due to the pandemic in 2020, has been seriously affected. Over the past few days, shares of New Oriental Education, TAL Education Group, Koolearn Technology Holding, Gaotu Techedu and other companies fell by tens of percent. The overall index of the paid education industry in China, according to Reuters, lost about 15%. However, many companies working in this area have already stated about readiness to follow new rules.

The world's largest media cite various reasons for such a radical decision taken by the Chinese authorities. On the one hand, the popularity of extracurricular education and tutoring tied up with the national Gaokao exam (analogous to the Russian Unified State Exam), thanks to which even teenagers from very poor families can enter prestigious metropolitan universities. Some parents begin preparing their children for this exam as early as preschool age. How reports Reuters, at least 75% of teenagers in China engage in some form of extracurricular activities - due to increased workload for many of them are developing problems with physical and psychological health. At the same time, some companies did not hesitate to use “parental paranoia” and offered services of very dubious quality. A similar situation in the industry in the spring criticized President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping.

Other reasons include the desire of the authorities to improve the demographic situation in the country. Although at the end of May 2021 the Central Committee of the Communist Party allowed family have up to three children, many parents do not risk having new ones, fearing that they will not have enough money to pay for additional classes and tutors. Without such assistance, in turn, the chance to continue studying at a prestigious university is much lower. New rules are likely are aimed to change this state of affairs. According to sinologist Alexander Gabuev, these measures also will help correct the popular opinion in China about the need for a prestigious university diploma for a successful career and attract the attention of applicants to secondary specialized education. It is also important that the fight against non-state entities is taking place against the backdrop of conflicts between the authorities and large Chinese corporations, for example Alibaba And Didi. In July, Chinese companies showed the biggest drop in stock prices since 2008.

However, the restrictions imposed by the Chinese authorities apply exclusively to the school curriculum. Educational platforms can still prepare Chinese for admission to foreign universities, organize foreign language courses for adults, conduct sports training, and offer classes in programming, playing musical instruments and other non-academic disciplines. Experts thinkthat Chinese corporations involved in the industry, in compliance with the new rules, can allocate tutoring in school subjects to separate non-profit organizations, and organize other courses under the same conditions. However, according to analysts, even in this case the largest players may lose up to 80% profit.

Cover photo: SONG XINGGANG / VCG VIA GETTY IMAGES

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Read on the topic:

1. Meduza. Authorities in China have begun to crack down on private education. For what? We discuss what is happening with (the main Russian) sinologist Alexander Gabuev
2. Reuters. China bars for-profit tutoring in core school subjects - document
3. Bloomberg. China to Overhaul Education Sector ‘Hijacked by Capital’
4. South China Morning Post. China bans off-campus tutoring in education overhaul that sets off market route among dozens of listed edtech platforms
5. SupChina. China’s after-school tutoring crackdown goes nuclear
6. The Washington Post. Why China Is Cracking Down Now on After-School Tutors
7. Republic. “We cannot fight the Communist Party!” How Chinese authorities destroyed a private education business in three days