China Eases Pressure on Private Teaching Companies

01China is quietly easing regulations on private education companies as the government aims to support a slowing economy.

02Government officials have not announced a policy change, but news reports say policymakers are now permitting the tutoring industry to grow.

03Industry experts say the new efforts aim to support job creation.

04Reuters News Agency recently spoke with people in the industry, parents in China and others.

05Here is what Reuters reported.

06Starting in 2021, the government prohibited for-profit tutoring in main school subjects, such as math and English.

07The reported aim was to reduce financial pressure on families.

08It was also meant to create equal educational chances for both rich and poor families, and to eliminate poor quality tutoring services.

09The policy was known as the double reduction.

10The crackdown cost the industry billions of dollars.

11Before the policy change, China's for-profit tutoring industry was valued at about $100 billion.

12The three biggest companies employed over 170,000 people.

13During the crackdown, the industry did not disappear as parents continued to seek tutoring services for their children.

14Many Chinese parents consider after-school tutoring services as a way for their children to gain an advantage in China's competitive education system.

15Michelle Lee is a parent based in southern China.

16Lee spends about $420 a month on after-school classes for her son and daughter.

17These classes include mathematics tutoring and online lessons in English.

18She told Reuters that in recent months, tutoring schools had been operating more openly.

19After the government crackdown in 2021, the number of tutoring centers and the number of teachers employed by them fell.

20The industry is now coming back as policies ease.

21The research company Plenum China said that active licenses for for-profit tutoring centers rose 11.4% between January and June.

22Liu Xiyia is a delegate to China's legislature and president of an education group based in the southwestern city of Chongqing.

23Liu told local media at a press conference in March that the government was dealing with problems in education policy.

24Lin Song is an economist at ING.

25He said China was unlikely to admit that the crackdown was a little too forceful, but that regulations would be loosened.

26He said the overall policy environment has changed from restrictive to supportive, as the main goal now is stabilization.

27Two business leaders who deal with government regulations at large tutoring companies recently spoke with Reuters.

28They said government moves to ease the crackdown had sped up in recent months.

29They noted a decision in August by the State Council, China's cabinet, to include education services in a 20-point plan to increase spending.

30This policy goal comes as more than 11 million university graduates entered China's employment market.

31It also appeared to increase the stock value of publicly traded education companies.

32The decision in August followed guidelines from China's education ministry in February.

33These guidelines explained what kinds of after-school tutoring would now be permitted.

34Last year, the ministry published online a list of companies approved to provide tutoring in subjects that were not considered basic or core subjects.

35To get around the rules, tutoring centers would often rename classes.

36For example, math classes were commonly called logical thinking classes.

37A woman who ran an English tutoring school in the eastern province of Zhejiang said she laid off 60% of her workers following the crackdown.

38Lisa did not want to give her full name to Reuters.

39But she said the school continued to teach science-related courses in English, without calling them English classes.

40Also, one-on-one tutoring did very well during the crackdown.

41Parents, who could afford it, paid for tutors to come to their homes.

42Some parents said this increases an academic gap, where students from rich families do better in school than poor families.

43That worries parents like young Zheng Dong, a Shanghai-based mother of two.

44She said the policy presented families with a hard choice, either pay up to $112 per class for a private tutor, or spend hours each day teaching the children themselves.

45She said that if this continues, the academic gap between rich people and everyone else will get worse.

46Young said, that wasn't what the policy was meant to do.

47But that's the reality.

48So, of course, it needs to change.

49I'm Ana Mateo.

50And I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

51I'm Mario Ritter Jr.