The supervision of off-campus training institutions should be incorporated into the rule of law track

Price hikes, extra-time charges, non-discipline training supervision

On February 26, children practiced playing basketball in a basketball training class in Haidian District, Beijing.

  □ Our reporter Zhao Chenxiwen / photo

  "In the future, non-disciplinary training is the general trend. Now we will get you the best price. If you don't hurry up to sign up, the price will go up." In an art training institution in Haidian District, Beijing, Bai Miao, the parent of a fourth-grade primary school student, was seated opposite. A teacher surnamed Chen said "a little dizzy".

  This teacher Chen seems to be true. After investigation, the reporter found that due to the "double reduction" policy, the prices of some off-campus non-discipline trainings during the winter vacation this year have risen, some even as high as 50%.

  Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, said in an interview with a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" recently that the "double reduction" has compressed the living space of disciplinary training institutions, and non-disciplinary training has "taken the opportunity", but it cannot be allowed to grow savagely and must be included in the The rule of law track, strengthen supervision.

  Non-discipline training market heats up during winter vacation

  Daman, a fifth-grade student, has signed up for basketball lessons for two consecutive years at a basketball training camp in Dongcheng District, Beijing. However, before the winter vacation this year, the teacher "persuaded" Daman's parent, Mr. Yang, to continue the lessons because the price will be adjusted soon. , the original 180 yuan a basketball class will rise to 250 yuan, and finally Mr. Yang continued for 20 classes for the child.

  Under the "double reduction" policy, discipline training institutions are basically "cool" during the holidays, non-discipline training is pushed to the "C position", and price increases have become routine operations.

  The reporter randomly interviewed 5 parents who signed up their children for non-disciplinary training, and 3 of them said that the recent courses have increased compared with the past.

  "The teacher bluntly said that affected by the 'double reduction', this kind of quality training will become more 'popular' in the future. The price used to be the promotion price, but now the 'original price' is restored." Mr. Wang's daughter is in a dance training institution in Dongcheng District, Beijing. Learning, the price of each class is now 80 yuan higher than before.

  Another problem with rising prices is overcharging.

  The "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Regulating the Development of Off-campus Training Institutions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") issued in August 2018 clearly stipulates that off-campus training institutions shall not charge fees for more than three months at a time.

  But when the reporter asked as a consultant, the agency still recommended the reporter to buy multiple hours.

  "The course is 40 hours a year, and a single class hour is 300 yuan. The purchase price for one year is 10,500 yuan, which is 260 yuan per class. After two years of purchase, each class is only 210 yuan. Buying more is more cost-effective." An eloquent training in Haidian District Teacher Liu of the class revealed that at present, the students in the institution basically start in one year.

  When the reporter proposed that the one-time fee should not exceed 3 months, Mr. Liu bluntly said that if you buy class hours according to this standard, you can only "go the original price".

  In this survey, the reporter did not find out about the non-disciplinary training that is concerned by the public in the way of subject training.

When the reporter asked a Chinese studies training institution in Haidian District whether the course could help improve their language performance, the teacher said that the course is mainly to cultivate children's interest in literature and history, and to teach some reading, memory and other skills, not to teach school teaching content, which cannot be achieved. "Upgrade" effect.

  Strengthening supervision directly points to the problem of malicious price increases

  While non-disciplinary training is "booming", relevant departments are also strengthening supervision, pointing to problems such as rapid price increases.

  On January 30, the Ministry of Education, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued a notice to deploy the special rectification of non-disciplinary off-campus training fees.

The notice pointed out that with the rapid increase in the marketing of non-disciplinary training, some institutions took the opportunity to increase prices and dump class hours, which increased the financial burden on families and hedged the effect of "double reduction" to a certain extent. It is necessary to comprehensively strengthen the supervision of non-disciplinary off-campus training. , and continuously consolidate and deepen the governance achievements.

  According to the news on the official website of the Ministry of Education on February 25, as of February 15, a total of 184,800 non-disciplinary training institutions (times) have been investigated in various regions, and 52 institutions with malicious price increases have been found. Seriously dealt with, the part of the malicious price increase of the training fee has been refunded to the parents.

  In fact, a few days before the notice was issued, on January 27, the Off-campus Education and Training Supervision Department of the Ministry of Education specially held a symposium for the heads of large enterprises in non-disciplinary off-campus training institutions.

At the meeting, the relevant person in charge of the Supervision Department pointed out that some institutions' wanton price increases and excessive marketing not only deviate from the public welfare nature of education, but also endanger the healthy development of the industry itself, and must be resolutely corrected.

  During the interview, Mr. Ding from a basketball training institution in Haidian District revealed to reporters that before the Spring Festival, the relevant departments had inspected many sports training institutions in his area, and the focus was on whether to drive up prices.

  "It is pertinent to start with sports training first. The gradual increase in the score of sports examinations in the middle school entrance examination and the richer examination items make sports training more 'pursued' by parents, and the price increase is also greater." China Academy of Educational Sciences Researcher Chu Zhaohui believes that compared with other non-disciplinary training, physical training has the most obvious improvement in students' physical quality. Under the dual factors of scores and growth, physical training has become a "popular" in non-disciplinary training.

  "The reason why some institutions have raised prices is actually related to the relatively low prices in the past." Teacher Ding explained the reason. Before the implementation of the "double reduction", the investment of parents was basically concentrated in subject training, and many non-subject training. Institutions have to fight a "price war".

  Taking Mr. Ding’s institution as an example, the initial price was 3,000 yuan for 20 classes, excluding the teacher’s salary, venue rental and student insurance, and the profit was not large.

This year's winter vacation, although the institution has increased to 4,000 yuan for 20 classes, the number of applicants has increased a lot.

  In Liu Junhai's view, non-disciplinary training institutions have independent pricing power and can appropriately increase prices according to market demand, but if the increase is too high, it is suspected of infringing on consumers' right to fair trade, and it will also lead to the spread of bad market sentiment.

  Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, also pointed out that if an institution raises prices too high without increasing operating costs, it is suspected of excessive profit-seeking, which is not only contrary to the public welfare nature of education, but also increases the burden of family training expenditures, offsetting the "double". reduce" effect.

  The Ministry of Education stated that the next step will be to focus on the supervision of non-disciplinary training, further improve the supervision system, clarify standard requirements, strengthen the supervision of the whole chain before and after the event, increase law enforcement inspections, and ensure that the effectiveness of off-campus training governance is not compromised. .

  Local first to explore classified management system

  "The current tightening of discipline training policies does not mean 'laissez-faire' for non-discipline training." Chu Zhaohui said that all the time, all walks of life have paid more attention to discipline training and stricter supervision, to a certain extent Non-disciplinary training is ignored.

In fact, the policies issued by the state to regulate off-campus training institutions, non-discipline training institutions must also abide by them, and regulations such as no false propaganda, disguised price increases, and no one-time fee for more than 3 months are all red lines that cannot be crossed.

  In fact, as early as the press briefing held by the Ministry of Education on September 23, 2021, the signal that non-disciplinary training institutions should be strictly controlled was released.

The person in charge of the Ministry of Education's Off-Campus Education and Training Supervision Department stated at the meeting that it is necessary to study and draft the standards for the establishment of off-campus training institutions, and make provisions for both disciplinary and non-disciplinary institutions in terms of organizational structure, practitioners, training venues, and training content.

At the same time, it is necessary to speed up the legislative progress of off-campus training management regulations, and include the management of non-disciplinary institutions.

  In the field of pre-charging, which is the most problematic area for training institutions, it has taken the lead in synchronizing.

In October 2021, the Ministry of Education and other six departments jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Supervision of Preliminary Fees for Off-campus Training Institutions", which clearly stipulates that non-disciplinary off-campus training institutions should also be fully regulated.

  In Chu Zhaohui's view, compared with disciplinary training, there are more types of non-disciplinary training, and it is the key to clarify the competent department to carry out classified management.

  The reporter noticed that the Ministry of Education recently released the key points of work for 2022, which proposed to guide local non-disciplinary training institutions, distinguish sports, culture and art, science and technology, etc., and quickly clarify the competent departments to achieve normalized supervision.

  At present, Zhejiang, Tianjin and other places have first explored the establishment of a management system for non-disciplinary training institutions.

On January 17, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism issued the "Guidelines for the Access of Off-campus Training Institutions of Culture and Art in Zhejiang Province (Trial)", which provides information on the setting, facilities, practitioners, teaching requirements and training of off-campus training institutions for culture and arts. There are clear requirements for materials, approval and registration, capital supervision and other aspects.

  Liu Junhai believes that clarifying the thresholds and standards set by institutions will help to "shuffle" the non-disciplinary training market in the future, and eliminate those "workshop-style" and "guerrilla-style" training institutions.

  The reporter noticed that although the guidelines issued by Zhejiang clearly stated that training institutions must be approved and registered before they can conduct training, they did not mention that they must have a "school permit".

However, in the "Opinions" issued in 2018, it is stipulated that off-campus training institutions must obtain a school-running license after approval, and then register and obtain a business license before they can conduct training.

  In the current policies issued in various places, there is no "school license" requirement for cultural and art training institutions.

However, the "Tianjin Non-disciplinary (Sports) Off-campus Training Institutions Setting Standards (Trial)" clearly requires off-campus training institutions for sports to "have a school-running license".

In August 2021, the "Notice on Resolutely Doing a Good Job in Reducing the Burden of Off-campus Training for Students in Compulsory Education" issued by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education also requires non-disciplinary training institutions to be approved by local education administrative departments and issue school licenses.

  According to an analysis by industry insiders, this is due to the different departments in charge of non-disciplinary training institutions. For example, the arts are managed by the culture and tourism department, but the department does not have the right to issue school licenses.

  "The current non-disciplinary training supervision system is still in the exploratory period, and it is understandable that the policies vary from place to place." However, Chu Zhaohui believes that even if the management is classified, the professionalism of the institution should be guaranteed. evaluation, but ultimately it should be checked by the education administrative department on the school license.

  The key points of the Ministry of Education's work in 2022 proposed to promote the regulation of off-campus education and training legislation, which Liu Junhai believes is necessary.

  "Local policies go first, and ultimately, special national legislation must be introduced to fully incorporate the supervision of training institutions into the track of the rule of law." Liu Junhai believes that legislation should clarify the concepts and division standards of disciplinary training and non-disciplinary training, and clarify the thresholds and standards for institutional setting, etc. More importantly, it is necessary to establish a normalized supervision mechanism for issues such as prepayment that are commonplace in training institutions.