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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.
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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.

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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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