[The Epoch Times, July 27, 2022](Reported by The Epoch Times reporters Ning Haizhong, Li Yun, and Yi Ru) In the name of reducing the burden of students’ heavy homework and off-campus training, the CCP threw out a plan against education and training on July 24 last year. The ban on “double reduction” in the industry has triggered a wave of closures of off-campus training institutions. The authorities’ policy comes a year after the sprawling black market for tutoring has been accused of being a “way out” for wealthy families. Analysis believes that it is impossible to completely ban off-campus tutoring, and the CCP’s “double reduction” has another purpose.
The number of off-campus training institutions has dropped sharply, and the huge black market has become a way out for wealthy families?
“Sichuan Online” reported on the 27th that Sichuan’s official report showed that the province’s “compulsory education” stage of subject-type off-campus training institutions has decreased from 7,029 before the “double reduction” to 471.
A study by Renmin University of China on the “double reduction” policy quoted by Jiemian News on the 26th shows that from June 2020 to November 2021, the number of educational and training institutions in the three major educational centers of Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou will be greatly reduced. , Among them, Shanghai has decreased by nearly 1,500, while Hangzhou’s education and training rate has decreased by nearly 70%.
The report pointed out that after the implementation of the “double reduction” policy, the search volume related to family education increased by 21.9%; the search volume related to one-to-one home education increased by 15.3%.
The author said that capable families began to shift from extracurricular training to one-on-one tutoring or other high-cost aids, which also means that the “double reduction” policy may lead to a certain increase in the cost of education, and may even make education unfair. worse.
In fact, the “double reduction” policy has spawned a huge black market for tutoring, making it easier for middle- and upper-class families with wealth and connections to obtain tutoring resources.
Shanghai English-language media “Sixth Tone” reported on the 25th that the “double reduction” has made tuition fees higher. In the past, the tuition fee for English classes for children was about 20,000 yuan a year, but now it is twice as much. A parent estimated that her daughter’s monthly extracurricular tuition costs more than 10,000 yuan.
The report quoted a parent who said that the cram schools she found were run by small companies who escaped the regulatory net. “As long as you try to find resources, you can still find them.”
According to official requirements, all discipline training institutions that can continue to operate are uniformly registered as non-profit institutions, and are not allowed to go public for financing.
However, “Sixth Tone” quoted a parent as saying that the 11-year-old daughter is now only attending a cram school that has been transformed into a non-profit organization due to the “double reduction” policy. Many, the performance has also regressed.
An expert said that Chinese parents are more anxious than before, and the “double reduction” policy cannot completely eliminate the impact of tutoring. “Parents of the middle class are more nervous; in the short term, the most elite middle and upper-class families have found a way out. “.
Ms. Wang, a citizen of Jinan, Shandong, revealed to The Epoch Times on July 27 that the local cram schools are all underground, “I heard that there are investigations, and they close when they are checked, and when they do not check or complain, they will keep going.”
She said that the family conditions were good before, and the children still learned some specialties, such as piano and art, but now the family is very difficult financially.
“The current tutoring is very expensive. I consulted a few days ago. It costs seven or eight thousand yuan for sixteen or seven days, which is very expensive, so I can’t afford it. Besides, the child himself works very hard, so we did not go to tutoring classes. “Ms. Wang said.
Li Yuanhua, a former associate professor at Capital Normal University, told The Epoch Times on the 27th that the market price will rise because of the risks of being reported and fined for helping people with tutoring. Families with high incomes are of course easy to obtain resources for tutoring, while families in the middle and lower classes have basically no opportunities. As a result, there is no chance for middle- and lower-class children to make themselves excellent through tutoring.
Why can’t the black market be banned?
The Beijing Municipal Government Education Supervision Committee will implement the “Beijing Education Supervision Accountability Implementation Rules” from August 1, which stipulates that if the “double reduction” policy is not implemented in place, relevant government functional departments and their relevant responsible persons will be held accountable.
Gao Xin (pseudonym), a teacher at a private education and training institution in mainland China, told The Epoch Times on the 27th that the authorities can only control large training institutions, but small-scale, private ones cannot. “You said that I can find a few students in my own home, how can I control it?”
Gao Xin said that before the “double reduction”, there were many people who did not have a license to do training, and they did it by renting a house on the street. Now it’s time to change the house to a hidden place. “There will definitely be a lot less now, at least the teachers in the school should not dare to come out and do it.”
The Shanghai English-language media “Sixth Tone” quoted a number of parents as saying that because they were worried about being reported and because the competition among students was already fierce, they kept a low profile about their children’s tutoring, and did not want their children to be in contact with other students. to the same teacher.
Ning Ning, a former English teacher at a teaching aid institution in mainland China, also said that the double reduction policy is completely impossible to achieve. There is a market for cram schools, because of the many problems Chinese students and parents face, which are institutional problems.
“First of all, with the setup of the exam, one exam is for life. You said that any parent is not in a hurry. Then there is the imbalance of educational resources. You don’t have good teachers in your school, and people must make up for it from the study class.”
Tranquility believes that the most fundamental reason is that there is no guarantee in China. “If you can’t get into a good school, it means you have no future, so the CCP used the media very early to promote something ‘don’t let your children lose at the starting line’. Many parents would rather work hard on themselves than spend the money on their children’s education. .”
Scholars say the CCP’s “double reduction” policy has another purpose
Li Yuanhua, a former associate professor at Capital Normal University, told The Epoch Times that the CCP’s introduction of the double reduction policy itself is an authoritarian method to interfere with the commercial market. At that time, it was because of the aging of the population after the implementation of the family planning policy for many years, but the decline in the birth rate of the population, which was a political need to promote the birth of children.
“It doesn’t mean that it is really out of concern for students. The premise of the double reduction at that time was because China’s birth rate was declining. It thought that it had reduced school tuition, and parents dared to have children. In fact, this is not the case. Because life is very stressful. , not just a tutoring problem.”
Xie Tian, a professor at the Aiken School of Business at the University of South Carolina, told The Epoch Times on July 27 that the CCP eradicated off-campus teaching and training and cut off access to more external information from the West.
Xie Tian said that the off-campus education and training institutions have played a role in social education and will teach some Western and foreign things. “The CCP’s objection at that time was that the education and training industry had become a second school, or a substitute for a school, or that the content taught in the education and training school actually played a role in anti-brainwashing.”
He also believes that the education and training industry is slowly reviving in the underground black market, and the CCP cannot hold back. But now this small-scale tutoring cannot affect public opinion. People privately ask for tutors only to hope that their children will have good academic performance and can enter a good school. This kind of cram school does not have the function of anti-brainwashing.
Responsible editor: Fang Xiao#