China’s private tutoring companies are coming out of the shadows after the crackdown

SHANGHAI/BEIJING – China is quietly easing regulatory pressure on private tutoring providers as the country looks to revive a stagnant economy and spur a nascent revival of a sector hit hard by a government crackdown three years ago, it said. is evident from figures, analysts and data from the sector. Reuters.

There has been no formal acknowledgment of a change in policy.

But there is now tacit approval from policymakers to allow the tutoring industry to grow, in a bid by Beijing to support job creation, eight industry figures and two analysts familiar with the developments told Reuters.

The shift is evident in new growth among tutoring companies and moves by Beijing to clarify its approach, as well as in Reuters interviews with five Chinese parents who described a gradual liberalization in recent months.

Details in this story about the relaxation of policy enforcement and the increasing openness of guidance organizations’ activities have not previously been reported.

From 2021 onwards, a government crackdown known as the “double reduction policy” will begin. prohibited for-profit tutoring in basic school subjectswith the aim of alleviating the educational and financial pressure on parents and students.

The move wiped billions of dollars from the market value of providers like New Oriental Education & Technology Group and TAL Education Group, and led to tens of thousands of job losses.

Before the crackdown, China’s for-profit tutoring industry was valued at about US$100 billion ($132.43 billion) and the three largest players employed more than 170,000 people.

Yet the sector proved resilient as parents like Ms Michelle Lee, 36, continued to seek tutoring to give their children an edge in China’s ultra-competitive education system.

Ms. Lee, who lives in southern China, spends 3,000 yuan ($557) a month on after-school classes for her son and daughter, including one-on-one math tutoring and online classes in English.

She told Reuters that tutoring schools have operated more openly in recent months than they have since 2021.

“When the policy first came out, I think the tutoring organizations were a little scared, so they kind of hid, like closing the curtains during class,” she said. “But it looks like they don’t do that anymore.”

In China’s high-pressure educational environment, parents have little choice but to rely on outside tutoring so their children can keep up, Ms Lee said, adding that she had “felt a huge sense of failure” when she attempted the training to support her children. .

China’s Ministry of Education did not respond to questions about the evolving approach to the tutoring industry.

At a ministry press conference in March, Ms. Liu

Mr Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING, said China was unlikely to admit that the crackdown was “a bit too strong”. Instead, there would be a “tacit relaxation toward a looser regulatory stance,” he said.

“The overall policy environment has shifted from restrictive to supportive as the main goal now is stabilization,” Mr Song said, adding that the tutoring industry should benefit from the broader shift.