{"id":8601,"date":"2021-09-28T07:00:16","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T07:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=8601"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:50:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:50:18","slug":"what-do-changes-to-chinas-tutoring-industry-mean-for-international-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/what-do-changes-to-chinas-tutoring-industry-mean-for-international-education\/","title":{"rendered":"What China’s private tutoring crackdown means for education businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Private tutoring is just the latest target in a long list of industry crackdowns in China. The change in policy is already having a profound effect on international education operations in China, and possibly on the future flow of students into education institutions abroad, writes Tim van Gardingen<\/span><\/h2>\n

In mid-2021, the Chinese government put forward the \u2018shuangjian\u2019, or \u2018double reduction\u2019 policy. The policy aims to reduce the intense stress levels among the school student population brought on by relentless extra-curricular activities, while simultaneously easing the childcare burden on urban parents. <\/span><\/p>\n

This comes as part of wider changes in the education market that have sought to regulate and improve the growth of the private education<\/span><\/a> sector, particularly for students in compulsory education (the nine years starting from age six).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Background<\/span><\/h4>\n

Many Chinese parents see education as the key to social mobility. They have traditionally invested heavily in education in the hope of improving their children\u2019s performance in gruelling university entrance exams (known in China the gaokao<\/em>). As a result, the potential for sustained growth in the tutoring industry was huge. In 2019, the Chinese after-school tutoring sector was valued at around $96 billion, making it the largest tutoring market in the world. Only months before the introduction of the new regulation, Macquairie Group forecast<\/span> that this value would double by 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to concerns about rampant profit-making in the private tutoring market, the authorities are increasingly concerned with the slowing birth rate in China and hope that reduced childcare demands could encourage more people to have children. Securing places on extra-curricular courses and arranging for children to attend them was considered part of that burden.<\/span><\/p>\n

What has the shuangjian<\/em> policy changed?<\/span><\/h4>\n

The shuangjian<\/em> policy is ultimately a regulatory shift with dramatic implications for the education sector, both domestic and international.<\/span><\/p>\n