English class Photo:VCG

China on Monday launched a national regulation and service integrated platform for extracurricular education and training, part of the government's efforts to smooth the sector's development while better protecting parents' rights as consumers in the sector.

The new platform aims to help parents identify compliant institutions with complete licenses, while ensuring secure payments, convenient refunds and accessible channels for complaints and reports, according to a statement on the website of the Ministry of Education (MOE).

More than 100,000 institutions have registered on the platform's whitelist of extracurricular training providers both online and offline, covering both academic and non-academic subjects.

Local education authorities have completed the review and filing of relevant data, the statement said.

The platform also launched a mobile app for parents, offering official enrollment services.

The MOE said that it will continue to strengthen the management of academic subject training while deepening the supervision of non-academic subject training.

The launch of the platform is aimed at making extracurricular training a complement to in-school education, while the role of schools as the main educational channel will be reinforced, the statement said.

Chu Zhaohui, a research fellow at the National Institute of Education Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday that the platform's most important role will be to improve market regulation.

"There are many 'invisible' or unregistered extracurricular training institutions. Bringing them under regulation will effectively make them more transparent," Chu said.

The launch of the platform also sends a clear message that extracurricular education and training institutions remain open, refuting some speculations that they were all banned.

It is clear that the idea is to promote standardization rather than eliminating these institutions, as some speculated, Chu said.

The whitelist provides a more accurate and clear description of the policy's positioning, the expert added.

To improve educational outcomes for schools, off-campus training has been continuously regulated to ease the burden on students.

While providing access for extracurricular training, the MOE said that the government will strengthen the role of schools as the main front for education, and further on-campus learning.

Measures will be taken to reduce the burden of heavy homework and extracurricular training on students, as well as the financial and energy burdens on parents for educational expenses and support, the ministry said, adding that the ultimate goal is to enhance the overall satisfaction of the public with education.

Global Times