Off-campus tutor industry faces govt crackdown
Print Edition
Unlike their usual tranquility during the summer vacation, primary and middle schools in Beijing will be buzzing with excited students as the city government has required schools to provide daycare services during the holiday.
Doors to school libraries, reading rooms and playgrounds will be wide open, and school subject classes are not allowed to be organized, according to the city鈥檚 education bureau.
The cities of Shanghai, Wuhan and Suzhou have introduced similar daycare policies, which target the competitive tutoring market for school children during holidays so as to ease their pressure.
At a late May meeting, the central authority ordered the comprehensive management of off-campus training institutions and a tougher crackdown on unqualified operations, false advertising, profiteering, and improper connections with schools.
Taking advantage of parents鈥 ambitions for their children, some training institutions take part in anxiety marketing, selling unnecessary programs that increase the burden on students and disrupt education.
鈥淭his has led to a series of social problems such as students鈥 falling levels of physical fitness, increased psychological problems, heavy family financial burdens and decreased willingness to have children,鈥 said Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher with the National Institute of Education Sciences.
According to the Ministry of Education, 400,000 off-campus training institutions were inspected from 2016 to 2020, focusing on problems such as unlicensed training, excessive training, illegal charges and false advertising.
In 2018, the Chinese government introduced the country鈥檚 first document on the development of the off-campus tutoring industry at the national level.
On June 15, the Ministry of Education established a special department for the supervision of after-school education and training for preschool children, as well as primary and middle-school students.
鈥淩egulatory measures covering the qualifications, operations, courses and capital of after-school education and training institutions are expected to be unveiled in the near future,鈥 said education expert Xiong Bingqi.
In early June, the State Administration for Market Regulation, China鈥檚 top market watchdog, imposed maximum-level fines of 36.5 million yuan (US$5.65 million) on 15 tutoring firms for violations including misleading advertisements and pricing fraud.
Changes have been taking place in such institutions. Courses for preschoolers have been removed, while extracurricular classes such as theater, speech, arts, calligraphy and chess have been introduced.
Also at the May meeting, the central authority encouraged schools to carry out extracurricular courses to meet the diverse demand of students.
鈥淢y child used to be enrolled in many classes such as dancing, speech and writing in the evenings and during the weekends. The fees were considerable,鈥 said Liu Yongling, parent to a fifth-grader.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
