Agencies
If, for whatever reason, a person found themselves at the right place – an almost empty commercial building in central Shanghai – and at the right time, they could make out a sound quite unsuited to the premises.
With the dinner hour close at hand, the unmistakable noise of children’s laughter would be emanating through the otherwise barren halls, as a gaggle of youngsters waited to be taken home.
Though no conspicuous signage or advertising could be found designating it such, this was the scene following a recent class day at a private educational facility – the sort of institution thought only a few years ago to be an endangered species, gasping its last as it walked the long, hard road to extinction.
But such bleak imagery would be lost on Song, the school’s receptionist, as she fielded calls from parents eager to find open slots for their children. “Summer classes are full. But you can take a look at our autumn curriculum.”
Three years have passed since the Chinese government enacted its “double reduction” policy, which mandated cutbacks in students’ homework burden and banned for-profit extracurricular tutoring on weekends and holidays.
In that time, a market for these services emerged under the regulatory radar – and looks to be expanding further this summer, as demand from parents has remained high and the policy environment has softened.
A recent directive by the State Council, China’s cabinet, on promoting the services industry offered even more hope. It included a section encouraging spending on education and training, the first piece of supportive rhetoric from a central government document since the sweeping clampdown was launched in the summer of 2021.
The directive – issued on Saturday as part of Beijing’s efforts to bolster the country’s economy – covered educational services for all age groups and stressed that support would only be offered to non-profit classes on non-compulsory subjects for primary and middle school students, a functional reiteration of language found in the 2021 order.
But to many parents and institutions, it sent a signal.Asked about the possibility of another sudden shutdown, a teacher surnamed Ding from a tutoring organisation in Shanghai was unfazed.
“We don’t worry about it at all now. We can take care of everything.”Her organisation has maintained a high headcount and has a job opening for a Chinese teacher during the busy summer season, she said.
Many families take advantage of the break to allow their children to get a leg up on their classmates, sending pupils to tutoring to do assignments given for the holiday and get an early start on material meant to be taught in the new term.
While the tutoring clampdown was intended to equalise educational opportunities and ease parental stress over child-rearing – two phenomena cited by many in China as reasons they have hesitated to have children – the latest directive was rolled out as authorities struggle to prop up economic growth amid a shaky post-pandemic recovery.
The 2021 ban precipitated an immediate and near-total collapse of a flourishing industry, leading many prominent education and tutoring companies to downsize and most smaller players to fold completely.
Following Saturday’s directive, the share prices of two leading Chinese education companies listed in New York – TAL Education Group and New Oriental – saw drastic upswings, with the latter surging by over 13 per cent on Tuesday.
Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher at the China National Academy of Educational Sciences, said he believed the recent move is bringing a subtle change to China’s education market, even with its careful wording.
“We’ve seen that off-campus training of primary and middle school students has been heating up significantly in recent months,” he said. “So, to a certain extent, the release of the State Council document will exert an influence on how people understand official attitudes.
“People may mistakenly believe that regulation on extracurricular training institutions has been relaxed, which may lead to more supply from businesses and more participation by parents.”
A staff member at another Shanghai-based tutoring organisation said he felt local authorities are increasingly turning a blind eye.
“There’s no need to worry about abrupt closures now, although we don’t promote our business publicly any more – we only do it via phone calls and recommendations by old customers,” said Zhang, who asked to be identified only by his surname.“Even in the hardest times, when many of our competitors stopped operations, we didn’t cease services, because we have maintained a good relationship with the government.”
Chen Zhiwen, an education researcher and member of the Chinese Society of Educational Development Strategy, said the market’s reaction was a result of misinterpretation, as there was “absolutely no change” in restrictions on after-school tutoring for compulsory subjects.“But the fact that such misinterpretations have occurred again and again over the past years shows a social sentiment that people need such services,” he said.
“We should figure out ways to resolve such demand instead of simply saying no to it.” He added that in the 2021 directive, there was a line requiring schools to do more to meet students’ needs as they pursued an improved academic performance, but most schools have actually done less, leading parents to turn to commercial outfits.
After the extent of grey-market tutoring became better known in the wake of the 2021 crackdown, the Ministry of Education set an ambitious deadline in an order issued in December 2022.
“By June 2024,” it said, “secret training and operations disguised under different names should be completely cleared.”
That did not happen. Wang Qian, the mother of a 10-year-old girl in Zhejiang province, said things have moved in the opposite direction, if anything.
“It never truly ceased. In the beginning, it shifted in form or went online, but now it seems to have made a complete comeback,” she said.
“Even if parents do not actively seek after-school tutoring, teachers might subtly encourage us to arrange it if our kids’ performance lags, because classroom results often affect their evaluations.”
