A student in Beijing Jinyuan School puts his mobile phone into the safe deposit box installed in the classroom on March 1, the first day of the new semester.Photo: Li Hao/GT

Education authorities in Beijing are continuing monitoring and further strengthening regulations in private tutoring business with the summer vacation approaching, while five elementary and middle school teachers were reported and penalized by Beijing's education authorities for working part time in private tutoring schools on Monday.

According to the official Wechat account of Beijing Municipal Education Commission, the five teachers were found to have taken part-time positions outside school in off campus training institutions, in direct violation to new regulations.

Beijing will soon start providing care services for first to the fifth-grade students organized by district education authorities, according to a post from the official Wechat account of Beijing Municipal Education Commission on Friday.

The service will mainly provide study spaces for students, open libraries and reading rooms, and organize sports activities, said the post, emphasizing that training and collective teaching for school subjects will not be organized. An appropriate fee will be charged, and students with financial difficulties are exempt from the charge.

China has been clamping down on lucrative off-campus tutoring business. China's top market regulator has imposed a maximum penalty of 36.5 million yuan ($5.7million) in total on 15 off-campus training institutions on June 1, over illegal activities such as false advertising.

China's Ministry of Education later said on June 15 that the ministry will establish a department to supervise the after-school education and training sector, which aims to strengthen care for the next generation as underscored by the central leadership, while deepening reform of after-school education.

Global Times