Has China declared a truce in its struggle with private tutoring firms?

A recent directive by the State Council, China’s cabinet, on promoting the services industry offered even more hope. It included a section encouraging spending on education and training, the first piece of supportive rhetoric from a central government document since the sweeping clampdown was launched in the summer of 2021.

Asked about the possibility of another sudden shutdown, a teacher surnamed Ding from a tutoring organisation in Shanghai was unfazed. “We don’t worry about it at all now. We can take care of everything.”

Her organisation has maintained a high headcount and has a job opening for a Chinese teacher during the busy summer season, she said. Many families take advantage of the break to allow their children to get a leg up on their classmates, sending pupils to tutoring to do assignments given for the holiday and get an early start on material meant to be taught in the new term.

Following Saturday’s directive, the share prices of two leading Chinese education companies listed in New York – TAL Education Group and New Oriental – saw drastic upswings, with the latter surging by over 13 per cent on Tuesday.

Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher at the China National Academy of Educational Sciences, said he believed the recent move is bringing a subtle change to China’s education market, even with its careful wording.

“People may mistakenly believe that regulation on extracurricular training institutions has been relaxed, which may lead to more supply from businesses and more participation by parents.”

A staff member at another Shanghai-based tutoring organisation said he felt local authorities are increasingly turning a blind eye.

“There’s no need to worry about abrupt closures now, although we don’t promote our business publicly any more – we only do it via phone calls and recommendations by old customers,” said Zhang, who asked to be identified only by his surname.

“Even in the hardest times, when many of our competitors stopped operations, we didn’t cease services, because we have maintained a good relationship with the government.”

Chen Zhiwen, an education researcher and member of the Chinese Society of Educational Development Strategy, said the market’s reaction was a result of misinterpretation, as there was “absolutely no change” in restrictions on after-school tutoring for compulsory subjects.

“But the fact that such misinterpretations have occurred again and again over the past years shows a social sentiment that people need such services,” he said. “We should figure out ways to resolve such demand instead of simply saying no to it.”

He added that in the 2021 directive, there was a line requiring schools to do more to meet students’ needs as they pursued an improved academic performance, but most schools have actually done less, leading parents to turn to commercial outfits.

“It never truly ceased. In the beginning, it shifted in form or went online, but now it seems to have made a complete comeback,” she said.

“Even if parents do not actively seek after-school tutoring, teachers might subtly encourage us to arrange it if our kids’ performance lags, because classroom results often affect their evaluations.”