On the evening of February 17, online education company NYSE: gotu announced that according to the latest regulatory requirements of Beijing, the company will stop providing discipline related counseling services to high school students by the end of February 2022.
Previously, gaotu has stripped off the K9 discipline training business, and the relevant business is provided by the newly established non-profit organization Beijing Tutu to the online discipline training school. Relevant people from gaotu told the 21st Century Business Herald that the high school training business will also be stripped to Tutu upward.
The key points of the Ministry of education in 2022 proposed to further promote the “double reduction”, guide all localities to implement the Discipline Training in senior high school, and strictly refer to the policy requirements implemented in the stage of compulsory education. At present, there are great differences in the implementation of high school training business in different regions with reference to the “double reduction” document.
This also means that the work of reducing the academic burden of ordinary high school students is advancing step by step, and a number of documents issued recently have been clearly deployed. Under the “baton” of the college entrance examination, the burden reduction of high school students and the diversified development of ordinary high schools complement each other.
High school training should also be “business to non business”
Beijing has approved a total of 10 Online discipline training schools for primary and secondary schools, which have not carried out high school training before. Insiders believe that gaotu’s move may have a chain effect.
At present, XRS online school has also completely stopped discipline training and only provided quality training for K9 users. High school training business has been stripped to hope online, which is a non-profit organization that undertakes the Discipline Training of the original XRS online school.
Other online education institutions in Beijing have not yet made it clear that “business to non business”. For example, Lexue Oriental, which is separated from New Oriental, currently only provides K9 courses. New Oriental online is still in the high school training business, but it has not registered publicly. Zhidao Youxue, a non-profit organization stripped from Youdao excellent course of Netease, has only been put on the shelves of primary and junior middle school courses, and senior high school courses remain in Youdao excellent course.
In the “double reduction”, the three most important measures to ensure the public welfare attribute of discipline training are: “changing business to non business”, banning make-up classes on weekends, winter and summer holidays, and implementing government guided prices.
The business scope of 10 online training schools in Beijing is online training of disciplines in primary and secondary schools. In other words, there is no need to modify the business scope to carry out high school training.
On February 16, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission issued the notice on further improving the filing and management of educational mobile Internet Applications (Exposure Draft), introducing the relevant provisions of “double reduction” into the filing system of educational app.
The notice on further improving the filing and management of educational mobile Internet Applications (Exposure Draft) divides educational apps into two types: Discipline Training (primary and secondary school disciplines) and non Discipline Training (non primary and secondary school disciplines). Among them, the scope of Discipline Training apps includes apps for compulsory education and providing discipline training services to high school students.
The draft also proposed that, according to the requirements of the central “double reduction” document, those engaged in online Discipline Training in primary and secondary schools need to obtain the permit for online Discipline Training in primary and secondary schools. The provider of Discipline Training Education app must be a non-profit legal person who has obtained the school running license from the provincial education administrative department, registered with the civil affairs department and established according to law, and engaged in Discipline Training in the stage of online compulsory education.
This means that if high school after-school training institutions want to successfully record the education app, they need to complete the “business to non-profit” and register as a non-profit institution.
High school training “business to non business” has been rolled out in many places in China. Cao Huan (a pseudonym), head of an offline discipline training institution in Shandong Province, told reporters that when the local government carried out the “business to non-profit” of K9 compulsory education at the end of 2021, it gave clear operational guidelines for retaining the profit-making business of high school training.
“But after a short time, the Education Bureau issued a notice requiring high school training to be either ‘transferred from business to non business’ or cancelled.” Cao Huan told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.
Now, Cao Huan has cancelled his school running license, completely withdrew from K12 discipline training, and transformed the institution into a picture book library.
In January this year, Shenzhen approved the “business to non business” of 45 training institutions. The new school running scope of many institutions such as XRS, New Oriental and Xueda (Xiamen) Education Technology Group Co.Ltd(000526) clearly includes the extracurricular training of subjects in ordinary high schools.
Among the many online Discipline Training non-profit institutions approved and established by Shanghai, including EF, Jinshu online, tifang online, Xiaoma Aixue, etc., the business scope also includes Discipline Training for ordinary high school students.
However, at present, the implementation degree of local institutions referring to the “double reduction” document is different. In Beijing, 10 online training institutions currently do not sell high school courses. Insiders told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that “when the ‘business to non business’ and fee filing are completed, or the spring course registration will be opened, at that time, the fees will certainly be charged according to the government’s guiding price”.
In Shanghai, Jinshu online has completed the “business to non business” high school training and sold courses at the government guided price, but the class time can be Saturday and Sunday. Tifang online has also completed the “business to non business” program, but it has not sold the course according to the government’s guided price, and it can have classes on Saturday and Sunday.
Due to the clear deployment of the key points of the Ministry of education in 2022, the implementation standards of all localities may tend to be unified.
“Burden reduction” and diversified development with characteristics
Discipline Training in senior high school is strictly implemented with reference to the stage of compulsory education, which means that ordinary senior high school students also need to “reduce the burden”, which has been made clear in the documents issued before and after the “double reduction”.
The guiding opinions on promoting the reform of education methods in senior high schools in the new era issued by the general office of the State Council in June 2019 proposed to effectively reduce students’ excessive schoolwork burden. The guidelines for the evaluation of school running quality of ordinary high schools (hereinafter referred to as the guidelines) issued by the Ministry of education in January 2022 proposed that it is strictly prohibited to make up classes in legal holidays, winter and summer vacation or in disguised form. Prevent excessive academic burden.
In terms of “burden reduction” for students, the guide absorbs the experience of “double reduction” and prohibits advanced and super outline teaching. The guide requires that senior high schools should not increase or decrease class hours, change difficulty, adjust progress and other problems at will. It is strictly prohibited to end classes and prepare for exams before the end of the last semester of senior three.
To truly realize the “burden reduction” of senior high school students, we need the diversified development of ordinary high school characteristics. The key points of work of the Ministry of education in 2022 proposed to accelerate the diversified development of ordinary high schools, fully implement the new curriculum and new teaching materials, so as to strengthen the characteristics and lead the healthy development of high schools.
Wei Wenfeng, a researcher at Chongqing Academy of Educational Sciences, recently told the media that the “moral, intellectual, physical, artistic and labor” education in the traditional senior high school curriculum is seriously separated, and the art and physical education courses and moral education courses are not fully developed, which is contrary to the purpose of developing five education simultaneously, and the construction of personalized characteristic curriculum system is weak.
The guide stipulates that we should fully develop the courses prescribed by the state, especially the courses of Technology (including information technology and general technology), art (or music and Art), sports and health, comprehensive practical activities, labor, physical and chemical experiments, pay attention to strengthening the education of the rule of law, safety, mental health and national defense, and effectively develop and implement elective courses, Actively carry out rich and colorful community activities.
At present, some places and schools have begun to explore. Shenzhen middle school took the lead in putting forward the development goal of “building an academic high school and cultivating innovative talents”. Shanghai has named more than a dozen ordinary high schools with Shanghai characteristics, covering science and engineering, science and technology, art, language and excellent traditional culture, sports, business, finance, rule of law and other fields. Zhejiang Province piloted the implementation of classified schools for ordinary high schools, with science and technology, humanities, sports and arts, and comprehensive education as the main types of schools.
Even within the county, the county should adhere to the development with diverse characteristics. “Due to the small number of ordinary high schools in the county, there are views on how to develop with diversified characteristics. It is proposed to determine a larger scope, so that the differentiated schools in the county within this scope can promote the diversified and characteristic development.” Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, said.
The person in charge of the Department of basic education of the Ministry of education pointed out that the guide specially emphasizes “guiding the running of each school and promoting the diversified and characteristic development of ordinary high schools”, which is conducive to guiding compulsory education schools to strengthen the cultivation of students’ comprehensive quality and promoting students to rationally choose high school schools suitable for their own growth and development, so as to alleviate the pressure of compulsory education students to enter school, Reduce the heavy burden of schoolwork.
“In the future high school entrance examination reform, when ordinary high schools recruit students, they should make a two-way choice according to the students’ interests and specialties and the characteristics of the enrollment school, rather than a one-way choice only according to the high and low results of the high school entrance examination.” Chu Zhaohui told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.
