China’s private tuition ban brought down the industry overnight — but parents won’t let it die

Group classes have all but ceased, while the cost of one-to-one tutoring has increased.

In first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, some one-to-one tutors are charging as much as 3,000 yuan (US$430) an hour. That is at least ten times more than before and about a quarter of the average monthly wage for white-collar workers in these cities.

For this reason, Gong Erkang has stopped sending his children, one in first grade and the other in fifth grade, for tuition even as he suspects they are not doing as well in class as before.

“I feel helpless,” said Gong, a video editor. “In the past, I could send my children to mass tuition classes, but now there’s nothing.”

Monthly tuition fees used to cost a few hundred yuan, but now each session “is already several times (costlier than) that”, he said. “Double reduction affects ordinary families the most. Rich families will always be able to find other ways.”