Over 80 per cent of China's tutoring firms exit industry
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BEIJING • More than 80 per cent of institutions offering academic tutoring in China have closed down or switched to other fields of business, following ongoing government efforts to reduce excessive academic burden on primary and secondary school students, the Ministry of Education has said.
Significant progress has been made in regulating the after-school tutoring market and the number of tuition centres has been considerably reduced, it said on Tuesday.
The number of online academic tutoring institutions has been slashed by 84.1 per cent, and the number of offline ones by 83.8 per cent, it said, adding that any remaining centres should be turned into non-profit ones or closed. Advertising by tutoring companies has been stamped out and capital investment in such firms has also been withdrawn.
A guideline issued in July by the general offices of the Communist Party's Central Committee and the State Council - China's Cabinet - said the number of tutoring institutions should be gradually and significantly reduced and the remaining curriculum-based tuition centres for primary and secondary school students should be registered as non-profit organisations.
Mr Hao Kuigang, deputy director of the Tianjin Municipal Education Commission, said there are no longer any online academic tutoring institutions in the city and the number of offline ones had been reduced by 92 per cent by Monday. All the remaining tutoring institutions have become non-profit organisations, he said. Mr Guo Yihao, director of the education bureau in Nantong, Jiangsu province, said the number of academic tutoring firms in the city has been reduced from 765 to three, with 491 closed and 271 switching to other businesses.
In a survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics, 73 per cent of parents said their children's homework had been markedly reduced and 85 per cent said they were satisfied with the after-school services offered by schools. School teachers have assumed more responsibility since the central guideline was issued and the ministry said it will make the effort to hire more teachers, while also encouraging schools to introduce flexible working hours for teachers.
CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
