The city’s education bureau recently formed a task force to conduct unannounced inspections of private after-school tutoring agencies and will punish unruly institutions, the Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.
The inspections target 15 types of illegal behavior, such as lacking a legal operating license, failing to meet classroom design standards, privately setting up branches without applying for a business license, illegally changing class locations and the name of the legal representative of an agency, having fire hazards, lacking surveillance equipment, conducting one-on-one tutoring in a fully closed environment, teaching content ahead of school, posting misleading advertisements, holding unauthorized competitions, cooperating with a public school to stream a class, hiring teachers who don’t possess teaching licenses or behave badly, and failing to sign legal contracts with their teachers.
The education authority has imposed various penalties on institutions with the above-mentioned problems based on the severity of the cases. As of today, a total of 3,141 tutoring agencies citywide have been inspected and 2,328 cases of illegal behaviors were caught.
The education bureau will continue its scrutiny to make sure the after-school tutoring industry is regulated.
At the same time, the authority will develop a long-term mechanism to reduce the academic burdens on students, regulate the management of institutions and create a healthy learning environment for students.
