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China education
ChinaPolitics

China’s latest lesson for private tutors includes harsh fines, tighter licensing requirements

  • Fines up to US$13,710 for unlicensed operators are part of reforms to rein in what had been a frothy private education industry
  • New rules, to take effect next month, follow Xi Jinping’s directive to ‘rectify’ the education system

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China’s latest reforms to the private education industry tighten control over content and impose tough fines for providers who attempt to skirt the rules. Photo: Getty Images
Sylvie Zhuangin Beijing
Unlicensed after-school tutoring services in China could face fines of up to 100,000 yuan (US$13,710), among other penalties, as part of a sweeping overhaul to the industry prompted by President Xi Jinping’s push for reform in the education sector.

The penalties, which will take effect from mid-October, are intended to help reform for-profit after-school tutoring activities, which Beijing began targeting two years ago in a shake-up of the education sector, according to a document published on the Ministry of Education’s website on Tuesday.

“[We] need to improve the legal framework for after-school tutoring and clarify law enforcement responsibilities, [to] standardise legal compliance for off-campus training, and make wrongdoers pay the price, while protecting those who comply,” the document said.

After-school tutoring – long considered an essential for students hoping to perform well in China’s competitive school exams – has been reined through the “double reduction policy”, a package of reforms introduced in July 2021 that Beijing said were aimed at relieving pressures on students and reducing financial burdens on their families.

The crackdown has hammered an industry that had been worth tens of millions of dollars, forcing widespread business closures, and throwing many people out of work. Off-campus tutoring had been considered by the nation’s quickly growing middle-class as a way to give their children an edge in school, as well as a chance at a better life and social status.

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But according to the ministry, by the end of July, more than 100,000 companies had been licensed under the revised policy, after lowering tuition fees and meeting government requirements for qualifications, capital, staff and content.

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