This article is reposted from the Duke Kunshan University Language and Culture Center Official WeChat Account. Click to read the original article.
In this piece, Hung Nguyen and Haoxin Feng investigate how the “Double -Reduction” policy — instituted two years ago to reduce Chinese students’ excessive homework and after-school tutoring — continues to be flagrantly flaunted around the country. And this time, in the school system itself…
On October 2023, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) documented the case of a student in northwestern Shanxi province who called the local education authority more than 10 times in an hour to report his school for holding extracurricular classes during the National Day holiday.
Authorities immediately intervened and ordered a suspension of the services; however, the incident prompted questions about the nationwide crackdown targeting the tutoring and after school lessons- industry implemented two years earlier.
Despite the policy, extra academic lessons have not been eliminated; rather, they have shifted from tutoring centers to public education institutions, according to media reports, school teachers, and older students themselves who went through such courses before coming to university.
Introduced in 2021, the double reduction policy (双减政策) is the latest attempt by the Chinese government to curb the nation’s hypercompetitive academic pressure on parents and students. The policy not only ordered schools to assign less homework to students but also restricted private tutoring companies’ activities. According to a government report, the measure aimed to improve education equality by promoting balanced development, making education less of a profit-making industry, and accentuating it as the primary means of social mobility.
Following the order, the US $100-billion industry evaporated overnight. The New Yorker and Reuters reported that New Oriental, the leading provider of private educational services, laid off 60,000 staff, while VIPKid, an online English teaching platform, ceased its operation indefinitely. Xueersi, a tutoring agency once spread over sixteen cities in China, announced its departure from the Chinese mainland from December 31, 2023 on the social media platform Weibo.
However, two years into the policy, many parents and students still complain about having to take extra classes after normal school hours, against the original intention of the “double reduction” policy, per multiple news reports. Most of the extra tutoring is taking place out of sight but within public high schools, a number of media reports and sources say.
News outlets divulged numerous instances of students approaching police stations and local education authorities to lodge complaints against unlicensed tutoring services and mandatory extra tutoring in schools. The SCMP reported on such a situation in Xiangyang, Hubei. Radio Free Asia (RFA) documented several cases where teachers forced students to take their extracurricular lessons; when this was discovered, a number of those teachers were later let go from their positions — or at least ordered to return students’ extra fees. In a press conference taking place on August 30, 2021, China’s Ministry of Education disclosed that it had received more than 8,000 reports by parents and children on the same matter. The constant recurrence of children getting engulfed in extra academic classes at schools has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the “double reduction,” a number of sources say.
University students who have been through public high schools in China and prepared for the rigorous “Gaokao,” (高考) the Chinese college entrance exam, in the last several years say that the number of high school students taking these extra – and theoretically banned – classes remain high in the education system.
Zihan Chen, Xiaotong Zha and Peixin Li, three DKU students and recent high school graduates, all agreed that 70 to 80% of their friends attended additional tutoring hours at their public high schools in different provinces, suggesting the popularity of the services despite the government ban. “Schools offering extra classes has become a new norm. Classes run after official school hours. We had these lessons every day,” Li shared. Lessons seem to be offered at no additional cost in the form of complementary but compulsory self-study sessions under teachers’ supervision. Some high schools in Suzhou have even asked students to attend school and take exams every Sunday.
This extended service, which aims at providing academic support and enhancing students’ grades through self-directed learning sessions, serves as an alternative to private tutoring. Oftentimes, students are required to stay for over two hours after regular classes to complete daily homework and attend regular assessments. When questioned about the continued provision of extra classes despite government restrictions, Li simply commented, “Neijuan is too severe!”
Neijuan (内卷), or involution, refers to the state of current cutthroat competition within the Chinese education system and labor markets. Hundred million of students have found themselves ensnared in an inescapable race for a limited number of coveted spots at prestigious universities. In this fierce battle, no one wants to be left behind, and everyone wants to get a step ahead, many Chinese students and families believe. Extra academic support therefore continues to be sought after. Academic pressure is one factor, but peer pressure to keep up with other kids and gain an edge is another.
The situation can be summed up the way one of the tutoring agencies in China used to advertise themselves: “Let us train your children, or we will train their competitors.”
Shutting down private tutoring strove to reduce parents’ burden on the education arms race, per the government report. According to an investigation by Peking University in 2021, a Chinese family spends an average of about 233,000 yuan on a child’s education, from preschool to college. The Guardian also reports that the average cost of raising a child in China until the age of 18 is 538,000 yuan (£59,275) – more than 6.3 times as high as its GDP per capita, compared with 4.11 times in the US or 4.26 times in Japan, potentially contributing to a declining birthrate and shrinking population. By implementing the double reduction policy, the government had hoped to reduce parental concerns over rising childrearing costs and mitigate financial burdens. Xinhua News Agency also points out that as the policy aims to deemphasize the role of private tutoring and improve the quality of public education, it also sends a message that a normal school curriculum should be sufficient without the need for any extracurricular academic classes.
However, as reality shows, the existing academic pressure and education competition create the need for learning and continue to foster tutoring services even when private agencies no longer exist. A middle school teacher in Suzhou who went through the implementation of the double reduction policy explains: “There is a demand, there is a market, and no matter what kind of education system there is, an elimination mechanism always exists. No one wants to be eliminated.”
As millions of high school graduates compete in the national university entrance exam, the gaokao, every year, no parents want their children to step into the test underprepared. “My parents were anxious that I would not be prepared enough for the gaokao, so they forced me to attend after-school classes,” confessed Zha, a DKU student who said his parents’ expectations were so overwhelming he chose to live on campus to avoid their pressure.
High demand coupled with the scarcity of private tutoring because of double reduction policies have led to schools offering extra classes. “Before the policy, tutoring services were prevalent, and finding a tutor was easy. It is much harder now. Fewer teachers want to do it because of the risk, and tutoring agencies now simply do not exist,” explained Zha, whose mother is a primary school teacher. She also confirmed that teachers in school are not allowed to run extra classes outside the class. But they often do, in response to families’ desire for supplementary academic pursuits. The scarcity of teaching resources, combined with enormous pressure from parents, students, and the gaokao exam itself, have driven public schools and their teachers to continue the services. While teachers and schools do not receive direct payment for lessons outside office hours, an enhanced reputation when students perform well is the main motivation. “The high scores in the exam may be considered as verbal encouragement or praise. If the scores are low, we will be asked about the reasons, but there is no punishment,” commented a middle school teacher from Suzhou, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Double reduction has yet to mitigate the intense academic pressure throughout China – despite its noble intentions, a number of sources say. The middle school teacher further pointed out that the government’s initiative had a beneficial intent – hoping to reduce the burden on students.
Nevertheless, students have yet to reap the positive effects the government intended. “Nothing really changed for me,” said Li, a DKU student who recently took the national university entrance exam, “Pressure was immense, and there was a lot of anxiety too. I still needed to do a ton of work in preparation for the gaokao when I was in high school. Seven days a week, I studied up to 2 a.m. for six of them, and sat for exams at school every week, even on holidays.”
When asked what can be done to curb the academic pressure instead, another DKU student, Chen, sighed, and said: “I don’t know. Double Reduction is a brave attempt. But for sure as long as the content of the gaokao stays the same, competition, anxiety and pressure will still be there, and we will still seek ‘tutoring’ one way or another.”
Authors’ Bio
Haoxin Feng is a UG student from Suzhou, China majoring in Media and Art track of creative practice. Interested in films and journalism, she had an internship as a journalist in Suzhou Broadcating Station. She wishes to bring her hometown culture to the broader community.
Hung Nguyen is a UG student from Vietnam majoring in Behavioral Science/Psychology. He’s interested in researching behavioral insights and decision making through the lenses of psychological science. After graduation, he hopes to apply his experiences and research into the field of education.
Editor: John Noonan
Layout: Lexue Song
