New Oriental Photo: CFP

China's education authority is intensifying its supervision of after-school tutoring by releasing a set of guidelines on Monday to identify and classify qualified programs for off-campus training institutions that provide tutorials for students from first to ninth grade -- the compulsory education period.

The freshly opened Beijing Stock Exchange (BSE) issued a statement on Friday stating that enterprises engaged in preschool education or curriculum-related training are not able to issue shares on the bourse. 

Chinese authorities have been strengthening supervision of off-campus training programs and cracking down on the private tutoring sector since July, after the Ministry of Education rolled out a so-called "double reduction" policy in July in a bid to ease the burdens and anxieties of students. 

The guidelines classified multiple off-campus training programs as curriculum-related programs, which must be conducted for the purpose of improving a student's academic performance in defined subjects and oriented toward subject knowledge and skills training. 

Curriculum-related training programs should focus on the explanation of subject knowledge and ability training, with the major process covering pre-study, lecture and consolidation. Teachers can demonstrate concepts and interact with students via artificial intelligence.

The evaluation of students will put more emphasis on screening and selection, with academic performance and test results as the main evaluation criteria.

According to the guidelines, those who are judged to be offering curriculum-related training programs must establish a graded guidance mechanism and strengthen graded guidance. 

Local education departments need to establish a group of experts or entrust professional institutions to carry out the classification and identification of training programs.

Moreover, training institutions should implement their internal management responsibilities with self-judgment, self-assessment and self-examination of the types of training programs, and hold training activities consciously in accordance with the requirements of "curriculum-related program" or "no curriculum-related program." The training activities should not be carried out in an invisible or illegal way.

Analysts pointed out that the guidelines aim to further implement the "double reduction" policy, providing more detailed rules for enterprises and relevant departments to follow, and enhancing the supervision of off-campus tutoring institutions. 

"The major goal for the guidelines is to further clarify some specific regulations or create more specific standards that may not have been detailed, explained or implemented when the 'double reduction' policy was first rolled out, while screening out a group of unqualified institutions for students," Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Monday.

Zhang stressed that the guidelines will enhance the supervision of off-campus tutoring institutions. 

Global Times