Advertisement

China’s ban on private tutoring may create a black market as demand for education services remains high

  • Industry insiders and parents say that demand will remain unabated for services to boost performance on highly competitive entrance exams
  • In Beijing, tutoring sessions are going for up to 3,000 yuan per hour, a little more than the country’s average monthly disposable income

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Chinese high school students study late for the annual 'Gaokao' or college entrance examinations in Handan, Hebei Province, China, in May 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE
China’s ban on private tutoring for children has put an abrupt end to a once-bustling industry but may actually create a black market with significantly higher prices, according to industry insiders and parents.
Advertisement
Local authorities across the country have begun to enforce Beijing’s decision to ban off-campus classes and turn licensed institutions into non-profit organisations, but the pressure to perform on state exams, including high school and college entrance exams, will keep demand strong from the country’s middle-class families.
Mary Pan, the mother of a 10-year-old in the western city of Chengdu, enrolled her son in the last available maths tutoring class.

“Everybody else is still taking courses,” she said. “In the future, if the [state] rules are implemented but other families secretly hire private tutors, we will probably do the same.”

Even though one-on-one tutoring at home could cost 10 times more than institutional services, she said if other parents hire private tutors then she “had no other choice”.

Signs of a black market for tutoring are already visible in local Chinese media reports.

Advertisement