Charges, guidance prices, and off-campus training institutions have been introduced successively across the country to usher in new challenges
Our reporter Xu Jie
The "double reduction" storm that began in early 2021 finally landed in July and swept the entire out-of-school education and training industry, causing a shock.
According to the latest data disclosed by the Ministry of Education on December 21, 2021, offline off-campus training institutions have been reduced by 83.8%, and online off-campus training institutions have been reduced by 84.1%.
On December 31, 2021, Wang Hong (pseudonym), who was sticking to a leading online education institution in Beijing, waited in front of the computer for a day, but did not wait for the announcement of the "online school permit" they had always wanted, but waited The Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, together with the Municipal Education Commission and the Market Supervision Bureau, issued the "Administrative Measures for Off-campus Training Charges for Subjects in the Compulsory Education Stage of Beijing (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Administrative Measures").
Simultaneously with the "Administrative Measures", there is also the Beijing Municipality's fees for off-campus training in online and offline disciplines.
The "Administrative Measures" and charging standards will be implemented on February 21, 2022 (the beginning of the spring semester of primary and secondary schools in 2022). The management of fees for off-campus training of subjects for ordinary high school students will also be implemented with reference to this.
Life and death moments of education and training institutions
In November 2021, the news that "regulators are preparing to issue education and training licenses" came out, which was once regarded by the market as a "significant benefit", and leading stocks in education and training such as New Oriental and Gaotu surged accordingly.
"But in fact, this is just a normal process of transforming the discipline training business of education and training institutions into a non-profit entity during the compulsory education stage. However, the issuance of relevant licenses is still regarded by the market as a survival indicator of whether institutions can enter the next stage." An industry insider told a reporter from the Securities Daily.
In accordance with the requirements of the "double reduction" policy, existing online and offline compulsory education discipline training institutions registered as for-profit legal persons and operating in a standardized manner can apply for registration as a non-profit organization.
The school-running regulations mainly include complete licenses and licenses, training conditions up to standards, compliance with training content and time and methods, compliance with practitioner qualifications, compliance with pre-receipt funds, and regulations for epidemic prevention and control.
Only organizations that meet these regulatory requirements can apply for registration as a non-profit organization.
At the same time, the registration of non-profit institutions should be completed before the end of 2021.
For-profit institutions that have not yet applied for registration as a non-profit legal person beyond the time limit will terminate the qualifications of compulsory education discipline training institutions in accordance with the law.
In other words, on December 31, 2021, it is a moment of life and death for education and training institutions to complete the "business conversion" and obtain the "online school permit".
In accordance with the requirements of the "double reduction" document, the approval of online discipline training institutions falls to the provincial-level education department.
Although Wang Hong’s institution did not wait for the announcement of the “online school permit” on the last day of 2021, Wang Hong told a reporter from the Securities Daily that “10 online education institutions in Beijing have been approved this time and have already Electronic cards for school permits will be issued in advance."
On December 3, 2021, the Chinese social organization government service platform showed that Beijing has approved 5 non-profit institutions for subject training in primary and secondary schools, namely Beijing Hope Online Online Subject Training School (Xueersi) and Beijing Yuantuo Online Subject Training school, Beijing Zhidao Online Subject Training School (NetEase Youdao), Beijing Job Gang Online Subject Training School, Beijing Lexue Oriental Online Subject Training School (New Oriental).
According to a Caixin report, the approved ones include Xueda, Gaotu, Qingbei Online School (under ByteDance), Gaosi Education and Small Box Classroom.
At the same time, Shanghai recently launched five institutions in a low-key manner on the social organization announcement platform of the Civil Affairs Bureau, including EF, Xuexiaosi (formerly Good Future), Tifang Online, Jinshu Online, and Xiaoma Aixue.
Among them, Xuexiaosi is a non-profit organization that will apply for a new application in Shanghai for the future, and the brand name "Ledu" has officially started to sell classes for a fee at noon on December 29, 2021.
"Difficulty in refunding fees and arbitrary charges" can be stopped
For a long time, off-campus training institutions "difficult to refund fees and arbitrary charges" have been repeatedly banned.
Although there has long been a “no one-time fee that spans more than 3 months”, most training institutions still use annual fees or longer-period fees.
This is mainly because the prepayment period is long, which can bring many benefits to off-campus training institutions, such as the ability to “bind” students for a long time to avoid student loss; to obtain additional income such as interest and financial management from the prepayment; more use Prepay to achieve expansion.
In addition to the violation of the charging cycle, arbitrary charges are also reflected in the absence of clear prices: the prices of off-campus training institutions are mostly not disclosed, and even some institutions have handwritten prices on site.
Prior to this, there was a phenomenon of online education institutions raising prices at will.
The regulation of prices is also an important part of the "double reduction" policy.
According to the "Administrative Measures" promulgated by Beijing on December 31, 2021, in accordance with the country's requirement of "distinguishing online and offline, and different types of classes, and categorically formulating benchmark fees for standard course lengths", the main pricing is based on national regulations. The class type determines the benchmark fee standard and floating range for Beijing's online and offline subject-based off-campus training.
At the same time, it is stipulated that training institutions can determine specific charging standards on the basis of the above-mentioned disciplines’ off-campus training fees, within a range of no more than 10% floating up and unlimited floating down.
"Organizations that cannot obtain a permit will not be able to recruit students in the spring of 2022, so we have been watching." Wang Hong told a reporter from the Securities Daily, "At the same time, those registered as private non-corporate units shall not be used for profit. , It is not allowed to distribute profits to investors, founders, or members, and must still be charged strictly in accordance with the government’s guidance prices."
The reporter found that there are no detailed rules on fund supervision in the "Administrative Measures" issued by Beijing this time.
In addition to Beijing, Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong, Anhui and other places have successively released guidance prices for subject-based off-campus training in December 2021.
The implementation measures for pre-charge management of off-campus training institutions promulgated in Hangzhou have clear provisions on fund supervision and refunds: "The institution independently selects a bank within our city to open a unique pre-charged dedicated custody account, which is specifically used to collect students. For prepaid expenses, all fees collected by the institution from students in advance must be paid into the institution’s special account filed with the educational administrative department at the place where the institution is registered. Institutional prepaid funds must be managed by an authorized custodian bank. The next day’s appropriation method is used for supervision. When a student applies for a refund or a partial refund to the institution, the institution shall immediately initiate the refund procedure in accordance with the refund agreement in the training contract."
"If it is said that obtaining a school permit for education and training institutions is the first step in survival, then the transformation must be the second step that is imminent. Finding vitality up and down the education industry chain has become the most important thing for each family. In the future, quality education and career Education and after-school tutoring will become a battleground.” The above-mentioned industry insider said.
(Securities Daily)