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Shanghai has released detailed measures on improving the quality of school education and curbing off-campus training organizations to reduce students’ burden from homework and after-school cramming. The document comes about a month after the Ministry of Education released a guideline to ease the burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring on young students.
Shanghai aims to effectively bring both the amount and time for homework under control, make after-school services available at all schools in the nine-year compulsory education and push online and offline academic tutoring organizations to operate within limits in one year. The purpose is also to reduce family spending on education and ease pressure on parents.
In detail, the city requires schools not to assign written homework to first and second graders while the written homework for third to fifth graders should be such that it can be finished in no more than 60 minutes on average. Those for middle school students should be controlled within an average of 90 minutes.
All compulsory-education schools are required to provide at least two hours of after-school services while middle schools are encouraged to set up self-study classes in the evening on workdays. The city will also enhance regulation on off-campus tutoring organizations. According to the document, Shanghai will no longer approve establishment of new organizations that provide curriculum subject-tutoring services for students from grade 1 to 9. Existing organizations will be re-examined and registered as non-profit units after passing the examination and getting approval for further operation.
Online tutoring service providers that earlier could be registered without an examination will be re-examined before being approved for operation, and those that are already registered will need to undergo the examination in order to continue operation. Institutions providing subject tutoring services are not allowed to seek financing by listing on the stock market, while listed companies are banned from investing in such organizations via the stock market or asset purchase. Foreign capital is not allowed to control or hold shares in subject training institutions. Off-campus tutoring on curriculum subjects should not be organized during national holidays, weekends or summer and winter vacations. Offline tutoring should end before 8:30pm and online training before 9pm, the document states. Prices of subject tutoring for compulsory education students will be included in the government price guide system. Meanwhile, the city will integrate on-campus and off-campus resources to benefit students.
The document stipulates that schools can introduce proper non-subject tutoring organizations, mainly those providing training on art, sports and comprehensive ability development, to enrich after-school services.
The schools are also encouraged to integrate all kinds of resources to provide activities, such as career experience, social practice and career planning education, for students. School teachers are banned from carrying out paid tutoring off campus. It’s prohibited to deliver any online training for preschool children, for whom offline subject tutoring is also banned. In addition, Shanghai will also stop approving establishment of off-campus training organizations targeting preschool education or organizations providing tutoring services on high school curriculum subjects.