A photo taken on July 26, 2021 shows multiple after-school tutoring institutions locate on the same street in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. Photo: VCG

The regulatory scrutiny on the curriculum-based private tutoring has made significant progress with about 92 percent offline private tutoring institutions being slashed, latest data from the Ministry of Education (MOE) showed on Monday.

The number of offline private tutoring institutions has been cut from 124,000 to 9,728, down by 92.14 percent, while for the online private tutoring institutions, they were slashed by 87.07 percent to 34 from previous 263.

All the training institutions have been repurposed as non-profit institutions, according to the MOE.

An official from the ministry said that the private tutoring sector has been greatly downsized, with advertising diminishing and capital substantially reduced, and a previous era of unchecked growth has come to an end. 

In 2022, the Chinese education authority will continue to promote the implementation of the "double reduction" policy to follow through on the government's agenda, according to the official.

The "double reduction" policy refers to a reduction in homework and the time spent in extra-curricular classes or after-school private tutoring. The range of measures aims to promote equality in the education sector by extending on-campus classes for students.

China's scrutiny on private tutoring started in July last year in a bid to correct unhealthy competition within the industry and ease the burden on Chinese students and their families.

The sweeping new rules for the industry have left private education firms facing a significant reduction in business with some pivoting to other sectors.

Operating revenues of Chinese education provider New Oriental recorded a net loss of $876 million during the six months that ended on November 30, 2021, compared with a profit of $228 million in the same period in 2020, mainly as a result of suspending multiple rental contracts and massive layoff-associated expenses, according to earnings results recently released by the company.

After abandoning school curriculum tutoring services, New Oriental is aiming to provide more targeted projects for students' personal growth, and increase investment in the college student market and overseas market, according to founder Yu Minhong.

The firm has been prompting its transformation to the livestreaming sector and e-commerce centering on the sales of agricultural products since the end of last year.

Global Times