NEWS//Tutoring restrictions

China has transformed for-profit online tutoring businesses into not-for-profit businesses. In addition, it has forbidden foreign companies to operate these schools and foreign tutors from teaching courses to Chinese children.

A boon for parents, population growth, and state control

The new regulations appeal to parents who are staggered by the high costs of providing their children with more educational advantages than the public schools offer. Many Chinese parents see education as a key to the future success of their children. Beginning in preschool, children frequently are enrolled in classes in addition to public school classes. This tutoring comes at a substantial cost. The new regulations will greatly reduce those costs. It will also limit opportunities for tutoring, which will provide students with more free time.

In addition, China hopes these rules will accomplish another goal. Reduced costs for educating children will encourage parents to have more than one child. Low birth rates in China over the last decade predict an inadequate supply of workers in the decades to come.

Another advantage: Limiting online tutoring to Chinese companies and teachers will enable the government to control what is taught in online classrooms.

A bust for tutoring companies

Chinese media are employing strong language to describe tutoring schools. Online schools are labeled capitalists, greedy "capitalist roaders," and enemies of the people.

An article in Nikkei.com notes, "The harsh language used to attack the country's fast-growing education [industry] is reminiscent of the Yan'an Rectification Movement during the early years of the Chinese Communist Party and the Cultural Revolution…. The Rectification Movement of the 1940s was a campaign aimed at purging anti-mainstream factions, while the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution featured mass mobilizations by Mao Zedong."

Sources: Global Times, Nikkei.com, The Print, NAICU.edu, MSN