Analysis of China's Education Sector Crackdown Hitting After-School Tutoring Companies

On July 24, the Chinese government issued a guideline to reduce the educational burden on students receiving compulsory education, part of which involves regulating the after-school training market, which has attracted wide attention from the whole society.

After introducing the relevant policies in this article, there is a vote at the end. Please send us your real thoughts and let us do more for you.

Policy background

1. Students in compulsory education are under great pressure of examination competition and have a heavy academic burden.

2. In order to get better grades, parents hope to help their children become more competitive through after-school training programs. Such programs are therefore in high demand, thus charging high fees and imposing a financial burden on families.

3. China has a low birth rate, and the high cost of education is one of the factors that discourages fertility.

4. The high concentration of capital makes the after-school training industry fiercely competitive and accumulates high risks. No matter if there is a monopoly or industry depressions, it would be a serious blow to the children and their families who need after-school training.

What's the Double Reduction?

It is to ease the financial burden of education on Chinese families and reduce the family support for education to a reasonable level, thus increasing the overall fertility rate.

What impacts does this policy have on ESL online teachers?

The following contents are only a collection of a few aspects of the policy that may affect ESL teachers, rather than the whole policy content in the "Double Reduction Opinions".

Scope of impacts of the "Double Reduction Opinions":

1. Restricted enterprises: those who conduct training on subject classes.

• Subject classes are those related to College Entrance Examination, including Chinese, Mathematics, English, History, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Geography and Politics.
  
  
• STEAM classes will not be affected.

2. Age groups affected:

• Preschoolers
• Students in compulsory education in China
• High school students

3. Training time

• Training is not allowed on public holidays, rest days or winter and summer holidays. Daily training must be completed before 21:00 Beijing Time.

Policy details

TR has sorted out 3 policy details from the “Double Reduction Opinions”, which could potentially affect ESL teachers.

1. Students will carry out voluntary after-school activities after 16:00, and the end time should be no earlier than that of local normal work time (18:00). The end time of training should be no later than 21:00 Beijing Time. 

Possibility of future impact:

With the implementation of the policy and the development of school activities, the number of students who voluntarily stay in school until 18:00 will increase, so the peak period of training will probably be from 18:00 to 21:00.

2. It is not allowed to employ foreigners abroad to carry out online training activities.

Possibility of future impact:

Foreign nationals outside China are not allowed to carry out training on subjects or to student groups related to the double reduction policy.

3. The employment of foreign nationals in China shall comply with China’s relevant regulations.

Possibility of future impact:

Foreign teachers in China are required to meet relevant qualification requirements, such as educational backgrounds, teaching certificates, teaching experience, etc.

The "Double Reduction Opinions" only represents the policy direction and does not have legal constraints on enterprises, but its impacts have been shown. TR will continue to pay attention to the follow-up on progress.

What will TR do to help ESL teachers?

1. In contact with many enterprises located in other countries, TR is striving to provide more employment opportunities for education practitioners.

2. Offline ESL teachers who are working in China are rarely affected by the policy.

3. Under the current circumstances, TR is exploring the ESL teaching industry both online and offline for opportunities and making plans for overseas teachers to come to work in China.

4. TR will make more efforts in developing the training market of adult education as well as minority languages, as they will not be affected by the policy.

5. TR will provide job opportunities in various industries in China to those who would like to come to work in China and share its rapid development. 

➀   At present, there are 9 pilot cities. This policy is announced as government opinions. The specific implementation time and policy details will be released in the future.

➁  After the release of the opinions, we contacted the enterprises with recruitment information on our platform and confirmed that they had prepared to make a response to this policy. The positions available on our platform represent real recruitment needs of these enterprises and teachers can apply as usual. 

➂  If you meet any problems, please feel free to contact us. We will do our utmost to coordinate our services from every aspect if necessary.