Why China cracked down on education and upended a US$70 billion tutoring industry, with millions of jobs and students affected
- ‘Discourse and ideology need to be controlled by the central government’, and Beijing ‘aims to rectify education itself’, industry insider says
- President Xi Jinping started criticising China’s after-school tutoring sector years ago, saying it ‘violated the laws of education’ and imposed a heavy burden on families
When the representatives of several after-school tutoring giants were called in for a meeting with China’s Ministry of Education in March, they were told that their teaching materials and content would be treated as publications – subject to advanced censorship.
Those who attended the meeting said the representatives agreed to fully cooperate but explained that they could not simply change the handouts overnight. The proposal also would not be an easy task for education authorities, as it would require quite a few staff members to conduct the regulatory review, according to a source who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
Then, last month, before the ministry had even put together a detailed plan, the State Council banned those tutoring firms from making a profit by teaching core subjects after school. China’s cabinet also restricted foreign investment in such companies, after years of this being a key avenue for such test-prep firms to raise money in the for-profit industry.
And just like that, a sector worth tens of billions of dollars – and long considered essential to succeeding in Chinese school exams – was upended.
“This unprecedented crackdown is from the top and is beyond the education ministry,” the source said. “The intention is not to particularly target the private sector, but it aims to rectify education itself.
