China: Neue Regulierung des Nachhilfesektors trifft Unternehmen hart

China tech crackdown: Beijing's off-campus tutoring ban puts 90 per cent of firms out of business

Last July, Beijing launched a sweeping crackdown that essentially stifled the industry, by banning the provision of holiday and weekend training

Industry insiders said it has not truly reduced burdens on Chinese students and their parents, as competition for quality education remains fierce in society

China's Ministry of Education, which last summer banned off-campus tutoring firms from making a profit, released figures that showed the number of these bricks-and-mortar classrooms has plunged 92 per cent since the crackdown.

The number of companies providing offline tutoring services plummeted to 9,728 by the end of February, compared with about 124,000 before the crackdown, according to the ministry's Off-Campus Education and Training Department, which was created last year to oversee the once booming industry.

At the same time, the number offering online courses fell 87 per cent to 34 from 263, the regulator said on Monday.

To better regulate the tutoring industry, the department would "firmly prohibit the mandatory purchase of digital devices and services for parents and students", Lü Yugang, an official from the ministry who oversees basic education, said on Tuesday.

Last July, Beijing launched a sweeping crackdown that essentially stifled the industry, by banning the provision of holiday and weekend training, ending the establishment of new tuition centres, and preventing companies in the sector from raising capital through initial public offerings.

Viewed as one of the most dramatic government crackdowns ever on a single industry, it was done in the name of "reducing the burden" for students.

However, industry insiders said the move has not truly reduced burdens on Chinese students and their parents, as competition for quality education remains fierce in a highly competitive society.

A part-time English tutor surnamed Li, who lives in the city of Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan province, said some organisations are marketing their English courses as training for IELTS or TOEFL exams to avoid the crackdown, even though it largely targeted school subjects for grades one to nine, who are too young for those exams.

IELTS and TOEFL are standardised tests used to gauge the English proficiency of non-native speakers wishing to enrol in universities overseas, so they are not regulated.

There is "solid demand" for English training from Chinese parents, so there is "no way" the business would abruptly stop, Li said.

Alice Wang, a mother of two from Chengdu, said some after-school classes that taught Chinese to primary-level students now brand the learning as "literary attainment", while mathematics is called "thought development". Both subjects are compulsory in grades one to nine, but the crackdown prohibited tutoring firms from offering these subjects on weekends and holidays.

Her elder daughter, aged 9, is doing the same number of hours of after-school tutoring – for subjects like maths, ballet and cello – as she was before the crackdown. "But the tuition fee for maths has dropped a little, from 400 yuan (US$63) per month to 350 yuan, which is a good thing", Wang said.

The latest data from the Off-Campus Education and Training Department showed that tuition fees have on average fallen by 40 per cent across the country, with the price drop varying from one province to another.

Wang said that although the time her daughter spends doing off-campus tutoring has not decreased, – a common trend among her peers – there have been fewer school assignments. Her daughter "used to spend only one and a half hours on her ballet training during the weekend, but now she does three hours", Wang said.

The impact on publicly-listed Chinese companies engaged in private training, however, has been real. The education regulator said 25 listed firms have quit the tutoring business, leading to massive outlet closures and lay-offs of teachers.

Michael Yu Minhong, founder of New York-listed New Oriental Education & Technology Group, said late last year that the company would close nearly 1,500 training centres and donate some 80,000 sets of desks and chairs to rural public schools.

Yu is actively live streaming online, promoting and selling farm products, but New Oriental continues its tutoring for non primary-level children, such as college students and vocational training.

Between June and November 2021, the firm lost US$908 million, compared with a profit of US$179 million the same period a year earlier.

Weitere Artikel zur Regulierung des Nachhilfesektors

China Daily: Number of tutoring institutions plummets

Sixth Tone: Regulators Warn After-School Programs Over Price Gouging

XinhuaNet: China's crackdown on illegal off-campus training continues during winter vacation