"For the first child, we also followed the experience of our predecessors, but looking back, we found that many of them paid unjustly. Therefore, for the interest classes for the second child, they only choose the ones they like, stick to one, and don't cast the net and throw money everywhere. , and we will not give up work, and hope to save our annual leave until winter and summer vacations, so that we can travel with our children."
This is the opinion given by the mothers born in the 1990s who had a second child recently interviewed by a reporter from China Business News.
Since the implementation of the "double reduction" in 2021, my country has formulated a series of regulations governing off-campus training.
Recently, the Ministry of Education released the "Off-campus Training Management Regulations (Draft for Comments)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft for Comments"), with a total of 20 articles, focusing on hot and difficult issues in the field of off-campus training management.
This "Draft for Comments" clarifies that complying with the public interests of the country and society is a common requirement for all educational activities.
Off-campus training is a useful supplement to school education. Its main task is to promote the implementation of quality education, meet diverse cultural and educational needs, and promote the healthy growth of young people.
Since the implementation of the “double reduction” policy, students, parents and institutions have all been directly affected.
"Since last year, we have no longer invested in extracurricular tutoring for children's subjects. According to regulations, it is also difficult for us to find teachers to make up the classes. But now that we no longer make up the classes, the children's learning enthusiasm and self-management ability have improved rapidly. The money saved, I can go to the gym and do what I like." With the implementation of the "double reduction" policy and the cultivation of children's physical and mental health, Xinhui (pseudonym) has shed the label of "Haidian Chicken Mom", "It's not about lying down, Instead, we follow the essence of education, respect the growth patterns of children, and respect ourselves.”
A former local person in charge of an education and training institution said that at present, except for the parents of students facing the high school entrance examination and college entrance examination who often contact her for "private tutoring", the demand for "private tutoring" in other grades has slightly decreased.
Of course, policies cannot be implemented in one step from issuance to implementation to effect.
Recently, the "Yuwa Population Research" established by a number of academic experts released the "China Childbirth Cost Report 2024", which mentioned that the average cost of raising children aged 0 to 17 in families across the country is 538,000 yuan.
By urban and rural areas: the average cost of raising urban children aged 0 to 17 is 667,000 yuan; the average cost of raising rural children aged 0 to 17 is 365,000 yuan.
In 2023, the per capita disposable income of residents nationwide will be 39,218 yuan.
In addition to economic costs, Chinese families of childbearing age also have to pay a lot of time costs and opportunity costs to raise children.
According to calculations based on data from the "Chinese Family Tracking Survey" released by the Chinese Social Sciences Survey Center of Peking University, it was found that in the past ten years from 2010 to 2018, the weekly homework tutoring hours for primary school students' parents increased from 3.67 hours to 5.88 hours; for parents of junior high school students, the number increased from 1.56 hours to 3.03 hours per week.
In addition, regarding the mentality of parents, in addition to the above-mentioned post-90s second-child mothers and former "Haidian chicken mothers", there are still some parents interviewed who choose to "chicken their babies" before traveling during winter and summer vacations.
China Business News reporter learned that some training institutions have transformed into "quality growth centers" or other types of centers, which are not managed by the education department; in addition, there are still some teachers who will provide academic tutoring by renting hotel rooms during winter and summer vacations. The fee for two weeks is around 5,000 yuan per person.
Obviously, for parents to truly find the balance point of "scientific education", they need the cooperation of all parties.
The "Draft for Comments" released this time will institutionalize the regulations issued since 2021, further enhance the legal effect, and promote the standardized development of off-campus institutions.
This is the first time that my country has stipulated off-campus training from the level of administrative regulations, which is a milestone.
The "Draft for Comments" unified the conceptual definition of off-campus training and solved the "status issue" of off-campus training.
It is clarified that off-campus training refers to “organized or systematic education outside the school education system, conducted for the society, targeting primary and secondary school students and preschool children aged 3 to 6 years old, with the main purpose of improving academic level or cultivating interests and specialties, etc. training activities.”
It is worth mentioning that the "Draft for Comments" also clearly mentions incentives for off-campus training, including "encouraging and supporting various off-campus venues (institutes) such as Children's Palaces, Science and Technology Museums, and Museums to carry out off-campus training, enrich curriculum, expand Enrollment quantity to meet reasonable off-campus training needs” “Local people’s governments at or above the county level should improve the funding guarantee mechanism and introduce high-quality and reputable off-campus off-campus training institutions through various methods to participate in school after-school services to meet the diversity of students requirements" and other forms.
Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said that the "Draft for Comments" has two major points. One is to consolidate the results of the "double reduction" and further refine and improve the previous regulations governing off-campus training; the other is to rationally position off-campus training. The next step in the development of training is to allow off-campus training to play a beneficial supplementary role to school education through governance and meet the differentiated training choices of some educated people.
"Our current business is mainly focused on intensive reading and technology. The so-called media hype about the signs of liberalization of the 'education and training industry' is purely a misunderstanding of the policy." A local partnership of an education giant that has been undergoing transformation for a year Teacher Ren Xingxing told China Business News, "What is certain is that the off-campus training industry will develop in a more standardized manner. We also carefully study and analyze each item, which areas can be improved, and which areas are our new opportunities."
First Finance Author: Chen Hanci