A year after China’s private tutoring crackdown, classes have moved underground as companies struggle to pivot

Many parents are paying more than ever before to keep their kids in private classes, fearful they will lose their edge in China’s competitive education system

China’s ban on for-profit private tutoring in July 2021 has also forced once lucrative educational businesses to pivot to live streaming and hardware

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China’s once-thriving private tutoring industry has largely been pushed underground in the year since Beijing banned the private teaching of school curricula. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 9:00am, 29 Jul 2022Updated: 1:40pm, 29 Jul 2022

China’s severe crackdown on private tutoring one year ago this month, which came on suddenly with an unexpected policy change, has forced many businesses to shut down and driven private classes underground, according to industry insiders and parents.

Last summer, Alice Wang booked four classes for her 10-year-old daughter in mathematics, Chinese literature, cello and ballet. This year, she has only kept the last two because of the policy shift that largely outlawed off-campus tutoring of school curricula.

Despite the cutback in classes, demand for additional training remains strong from parents who worry about their kids falling behind.

Wang said she has seen her daughter’s academic performance regress since the new regulation. Her daughter is no longer among the top 10 students in her math class, for example, once a consistent achievement for the student, who starts fifth grade next semester. In two years, she will compete to be admitted to a good middle school.

“She is having a sense of disparity and crisis,” Wang said.

When Wang decided to have her daughter attend private classes during the summer vacation, she found a teacher through a recommendation from other parents. The teacher hosts classes at her home “secretly”, according to Wang.

“As far as I know, her well-performing classmates are all taking private classes,” Wang said of her daughter. “There is a so-called genius boy in the class, who in fact is going to finish middle school physics this summer.”