Four sources told Reuters that China is planning a considerably stronger crackdown on the country’s US $120 billion private tutoring business, including trial bans on holiday tutoring and advertising restrictions.
According to two people familiar with the preparations, the new las, which seek to relieve strain on school children while also increasing the country’s birth rate by decreasing family living expenditures, might be revealed as soon as next week and take effect next month.
According to the sources, Beijing, Shanghai, and other large cities have imposed a trial ban on both online and offline tutoring during the summer and inter holidays, which goes far further than the proposed regulations initially reported.
According to two sources, the trial vacation ban, which is in addition to plans to prohibit online and offline tutoring on weekends throughout the school year, may cost tutoring firms up to 70% to 80% of their yearly income.
The proposed reforms by the Ministry of Education and other authorities are aimed at the competitive tutoring market for children in kindergarten through 12th grade, or K-12 students, a business that has exploded in recent years.
According to the most recent data from the Chinese Society of Education, more than 75% of K12 pupils in China – roughly of ages 6 to 18 – attended after-school tutoring sessions in 2016, and anecdotal evidence shows that proportion has grown.
This planned industry crackdown had already prompted at least one big tutoring business to halt a billion-dollar funding round, is being driven from the top, according to sources.
