China's private tuition ban backfires, forays activity into underground market; parents concerned over rising costs
Parents have pointed out higher costs due to a shortage of private teachers, thereby raising concerns over the quality of education. Read details below.
China's decision to impose a ban on private tuition to reduce the cost of raising children, has backfired, as it not only forayed the activity into black market, but has also left kids, parents, and teachers related to the industry vulnerable to punishment as the demand for private tutors never declined.
This ban had declared private tuition outlawed on school subjects. However, parents point out that instead of achieving its goal, higher costs due to a shortage of private teachers have raised concerns over the quality of education given to the students in the underground market, which has left fear of being discovered by the authorities, the Straits Times reported.
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The report cited an example of Finance Executive Zoe Pan, who used to spend 300 yuan (around USD 43) for each hour of her only son's tuition classes earlier but now has to spend 150 yuan (around USD 22) extra post-ban.
Pan, aged 43 and currently living in Beijing, said, "Before the ban, we could rely on group classes by big tutoring brands or have access to a wider selection of tutors. But we can now rely only on word-of-mouth communication--mainly from other parents--to find out about tutors or sign up for tuition classes that have been repackaged to avoid the authorities' detection."
Chinese parents are also demanding one-on-one tuition, which has been deemed unlawful, resulting in a further shortage of teachers.
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The ban in July 2021 by Beijing, reportedly, as a surprise to ease parents' child-rearing concerns and to reduce students' workload. This move toppled the USD 120 billion industry in the country.
According to the Strait Times report, spotless educational qualifications in China are seen as a way for Chinese children to stand out in an extremely competitive job market. Amid the tense situation, the slowing economy raises further concerns among parents about the livelihood prospects of their children, which may be the only one most Chinese parents would have in their entire lifetime.
Several media reports in China noted that tuition classes were currently being conducted illegally in shady buildings.
Authorities in Guangzhou city, in southern Guangdong province, China, released a report in August showing how tuition classes were still taking place illegally, as well as the punishments meted out to offenders. They warned offenders not to contravene the ban.
In an incident from January 2024, a junior high school student in central Hubei province had gone to the local police to report on the illegal tuition classes that he was attending. He filed a complaint, claiming that his workload was too heavy.
A parent in Beijing, named Cheng, informed that tuition classes had to be conducted on the fly just after the ban had kicked in to avoid detection by the police or neighbours, Strait Times reported.
Reportedly, Cheng, who is in her 40s now, said that her daughter is in junior high now and had to attend classes at secret venues that were announced only on the day of the class to avoid detection.
"Sometimes classes would be held in a classmate's home, or a commercial space. Once, we had to travel out to the suburbs to attend a two-hour mathematics class and come back to the city where we live. It was so late when we got back, and my daughter still had school the next day," she said.
Cheng also claimed that as the cost of a teacher has increased in China, she remains even more tense over the quality of education imparted to her child.
Parents and teachers have also found loopholes in the ban regulation by repackaging tuition classes under other names. The report claimed that mathematics classes are now known as logical thinking programs, and English classes are referred to as drama and hosting courses at the centre.
A parent in Shanghai, said that she would give tutors "extra pocket money" to make sure her Primary 5 son landed a spot at a tuition centre that had repackaged classes as enrichment programs.
"The spots for summer school programs are so hot that I have to start reaching out to the teachers at least a month in advance to book one," she said.
