There’s a certain perception of the Chinese student as being incredibly diligent (勤奋 qín fèn). We hear about it on the news in the west all the time. Chinese students spend much more time on their studies and have been eating our lunch when it comes to test scores in major subjects like math (数学 shù xué) and science (科学 kē xué). Having taught Chinese students for the past 11 years, I can attest to this. However, it looks like things are about to drastically change with recent announcements of crackdowns on after-school lessons. So is this the end of private education in China? In this post I’ll try to answer that question.

A Brief Overview of Education in China

In China, education is very important (在中国教育非常重要 zài zhōng guó jiào yù fēi cháng zhòng yào). There is the state-run public education system, which falls under the control of the Ministry of Education (教育部 jiào yù bù).

The country has a compulsory education (义务教育 yì wù jiào yù) system which says that all citizens must attend nine years of school. In most places, this is broken down into six years of primary education (小学教育 xiǎo xué jiào yù) followed by three years of secondary education (中学教育 zhōng xué jiào yù). Many students also attend preschool (育幼院 yù yòu yuàn) for a few years these days.

After finishing three years of junior middle school (初中 chū zhōng), students can go a few routes. Students wishing to continue on to senior middle school (高中 gāo zhōng) must take an entrance exam known as the Zhongkao (中考 zhōng kǎo). This is where education starts to get competitive in China, although most students who wish to go on to senior middle school will have the chance to do so.

Other students choose to enter a vocational school (职业学校 zhí yè xué xiào) to learn a skill, usually for two to four years. There has been a big push in the last few decades to increase and improve vocational training in China, especially for rural residents moving to urban areas to find work.

For students who want to go on to university (大学 dà xué), things get very competitive. The college entrance exam, known as the Gaokao (高考 gāo kǎo), is incredibly important. A student’s score on the Gaokao determines whether they get into university at all, and the top schools require very high scores.

Only a small percentage of students get a high enough score on the exam to attend one of the country’s most prestigious schools, such as Peking University (北京大学 běi jīng dà xué). Students who fail the exam actually have to repeat their senior year for a chance to take it again. As you can imagine, it’s an extremely stressful time for both students and parents alike.

For more details on the Gaokao, be sure to read Ayana’s informative post. Now that you understand the basics of the country’s public system, let’s get onto the details of the booming private education.

Learn more about the Gaokao and practice your Chinese listening with this CCTV English documentary.

A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry Emerges

Due to the intense competition related to the Gaokao and college entrances, a massive private education system emerged in China. This was made possible thanks to the Reform and Opening (改革开放 gǎi gé kāi fàng) period under Deng Xiaoping. Before long. there was an abundance of after-school training centers for Chinese parents to choose from.

In an effort to increase their child’s chances of acing the test and making it into a top-tier school, parents who could afford it signed their Little Emperors (小皇帝 xiǎo huáng dì) up for a plethora of private lessons. In shopping malls and commercial centers in big cities all across China, you’ll find plenty of private tutoring centers for Chinese students.

With the development of technology came the addition of online lessons. These are appealing to parents as they can skip out on the commute and can get their child in one-on-one lessons. This includes platforms like VIPKID, which I have been teaching on for the past five years.

I ask my students all the time about their schedule, and most of them are incredibly busy. Even on the weekends and during summer holiday, many of them are taking several extra lessons on top of finishing their regular schoolwork. These classes aren’t cheap, either, and only the upper-middle class can really afford them.

The private education industry in China is estimated to be valued around $120 billion. Business is definitely booming, or at least, it was…

New Regulations on the Industry

For many years, China had a one-child policy (一孩政策 yī hái zhèng cè), which has led to an aging population. Even though it was reversed several years ago and families all over the country can now have up to three children, many parents have decided they simply can’t afford it. This is due to the rising cost of living and the competitiveness of the education system.

The government is concerned that the rising cost of private education is discouraging people from having more children, especially well-off families in the cities. In an effort to combat this, new regulations are being put in place. At the top of the list is the banning of for-profit tutoring.

In a sector that has seen billions pumped in over recent years, this had immediate shockwaves. Stock prices in companies such as New Oriental, which specializes in private tutoring, plummeted as much as 40% on the news. The new regulations also state that students cannot take extra lessons on weekends, holidays, or summer/winter vacations.

They are also putting in restrictions on teaching subjects that are on the Gaokao exam. The hopes are that this creates a more even playing field for students. Many parents will likely try to find a way to get their kids additional training for the exam, though, as they realize how important it is for them to get a high score. Well-off families will likely splurge for expensive one-on-one lessons, while others may look to illegal tutoring services.

With rising xenophobia (仇外心理 chóu wài xīn lǐ), especially among the CCP, it seems like these new regulations are also an attempt to curb foreign influence. Restrictions on teaching US and world history were put in place a few years ago, and these new measures take it a step further.

Get a summary of the new regulations in this video from South China Morning Post.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about the new regulations. On the one hand, I’m happy for my students in hopes that they get to enjoy their weekends and holidays. I’ve always felt bad when students attended my classes on their most important holidays, knowing they’d rather be celebrating and having fun. On the other hand, I find it hard to believe that parents all over China are just going to stop getting extra lessons for their kids, whether they are technically legal or not. Of course, I’m also a bit bummed to find out that the job I’ve had for the last five years is either going away entirely or at the very least will look entirely different. Only time will tell…