How to strengthen supervision of non-disciplinary training?
The quality of training is not high, the price will rise arbitrarily, there are security risks
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
In order to regulate the behavior of non-disciplinary off-campus training, effectively prevent problems such as low training quality, wanton price hikes, and potential safety hazards, protect the legitimate rights and interests of students and parents, and regulate the development of non-disciplinary off-campus training industry, the Ministry of Education, the National Development and Reform Commission, The State Administration for Market Regulation recently jointly issued the "Announcement on Regulating Non-Disciplinary Off-campus Training" (hereinafter referred to as the "Announcement").
The "Announcement" pointed out that non-disciplinary off-campus training institutions should have corresponding qualifications, and practitioners should have corresponding professional (professional) ability certificates.
In terms of charging standards, the announcement stated that non-disciplinary off-campus training institutions should follow the principles of fairness, legality, and good faith, and reasonably determine training charging items and standards based on market demand, training costs and other factors.
Training fees should be clearly marked, and information such as training content, training duration, charging items, and charging standards should be disclosed to the public and subject to public supervision.
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" that "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 it. The rule of law track, strengthen supervision.
Non-discipline training prices
family financial burden
How much non-disciplinary training do parents spend on their children each year?
In response to this problem, the reporter conducted a sample survey on 45 students from 3 schools in Xicheng District, Beijing.
The data shows that the cost of non-discipline training per student is at least 5,000 yuan, and 10,000 to 20,000 yuan is an average level. If you practice equestrian, ice hockey and other sports, it will not be capped, and it will exceed 100,000 yuan per year.
"In the past six months, there have been various price increases. Art classes have risen from more than 300 yuan per session to 400 yuan per session; half-year dance courses have risen by 1,500 yuan; hard pen calligraphy classes are now more than 200 yuan per session." Chang Fei, a resident of Xicheng District, Beijing There is a daughter, he originally wanted her daughter to dabble in "qin, chess, calligraphy and painting", but because of the increasing training costs, he finally had to give up "qin" and "chess".
But there are also many parents who are still insisting.
The reporter learned that after the implementation of the "double reduction", more than 80% of the parents interviewed chose to enroll their children in additional interest classes, and most of them enroll in two courses.
According to the Survey Report on Non-Disciplinary Training Consumption (2021) (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by the Social Survey and Public Opinion Research Group of the Narada Poll Center, 76.64% of parents spend 1 1 per cent on their children's non-discipline training each year. Less than 10,000 yuan, of which the annual cost is between 5,001 yuan and 7,000 yuan; 23.36% of the interviewed parents spend more than 10,000 yuan per year.
However, this is related to the number of courses reported by parents, the level of courses, the level of teachers, and the brand of the institution.
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 believes 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.
According to Ma Xuelei, the vice chairman of the Research Branch of the China Private Education Association, the policy has two different approaches to the governance logic of disciplinary training institutions and non-disciplinary training institutions. For disciplinary training, stress reduction is emphasized, while the main tone of quality disciplines is normative. However, this does not mean that non-disciplinary quality education can harm the interests of students and create new educational anxiety through excessive marketing, otherwise stricter supervision will be ushered in.
Deploy to carry out special rectification
Malicious price hikes under investigation
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 of families, and to a certain extent hedged the effect of "double reduction". 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 official website of the Ministry of Education, as of February 15, a total of 184,800 non-disciplinary training institutions have been investigated (times), and 52 institutions with malicious price increases have been found. The malicious price increase has been refunded to parents.
The "Announcement" once again clearly required to regulate its own charging behavior.
Unfair competition by fictitious original prices, false discounts, and false publicity is prohibited, monopolistic behaviors are prevented and stopped, and any form of price fraud is prohibited.
All pre-paid fees must be entered into the special account of the institution for charging.
Training for primary and secondary school students shall not use training loans to pay for training fees.
No one-time charge or disguised charge in the form of recharge, secondary card, etc. with a time span of more than 3 months or 60 class hours.
According to Ma Xuelei's analysis, under the background of "double reduction", some relevant institutional capital and personnel are transferred to non-disciplinary training, but the old way of disciplinary training can no longer be followed. The "Announcement" serves as a wake-up call.
Learning from the lessons of off-campus training of subjects, the possible price gouging behavior of non-subject off-campus training is virtual price.
For example, some institutions have launched advertisements claiming that courses originally sold for 999 yuan are now only sold for 9 yuan. When the relevant departments investigated and dealt with them, they found that there was no actual transaction record for the 999 yuan course price. This is a typical virtual price gouging.
In the interview, many interviewed parents mentioned two words in the "Announcement" - "reasonable".
But what exactly is "reasonable" to determine the training fee items and standards, is the confusion in the minds of many parents.
In this regard, Ma Xuelei believes that there are some principled regulations on the reasonable pricing of training institutions, that is, combining the cost of the institution and the market demand.
"The cost is nothing more than the venue, teachers and management. Market demand may require different prices to be set according to different regions and different cities, and then to be fair and just based on the principle of public welfare."
Precise implementation of classified management
Promote the healthy development of the industry
At present, a relatively complete supervision system has been established for disciplinary training. Can the supervision of non-disciplinary training be used for reference?
"Most non-disciplinary off-campus training and on-campus education are very different, highly complementary, and do not belong to rigid needs. Therefore, the goals and methods of disciplinary off-campus training governance should not be simply copied." Liu Lin believes that non-disciplinary training supervision There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and classified management and precise policy implementation should be implemented according to the different characteristics of various disciplines.
The categories closely related to the senior high school entrance examination and the college entrance examination can be managed with reference to subject training; for other categories of non-disciplinary off-campus training, the development law and actual needs should be followed, and diversified means should be used to guide their healthy development.
In the view of Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, compared with disciplinary training, there are more types of non-disciplinary training, and it is the key to clarify the competent departments for 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. Clear requirements for materials, approval and registration, capital supervision and other aspects are made.
Ma Xuelei believes that in the future, relevant departments will at least formulate management measures for off-campus training in three aspects: sports, science and technology, and cultural tourism.
Each department will formulate corresponding management measures in terms of qualification acquisition, site requirements, personnel requirements, management requirements, code of conduct requirements, and safety code requirements.
"With these management measures, there is a basis for approval and supervision. The degree of laxity of these regulatory measures depends on the benign development of the industry itself. If the industry enters a virtuous circle with the joint efforts of industry members and associations, then the supervision It may be a little looser. If it causes a lot of criticism, it needs strict supervision.”
The Ministry of Education's work points in 2022 also proposed to promote the regulation of off-campus education and training legislation.
Experts interviewed believe this is necessary.
At this year's National Two Sessions, Han Ping, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, former deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education, and a first-level inspector suggested that the management regulations for off-campus training institutions should be issued as soon as possible, and the competent business departments should be given administrative approval authority from the legal level. The approval type and form of “certificate”, and further clarify the management responsibilities of the competent business department and the registration management department.
At the same time, under the circumstance that the approval needs are urgent and the legislative process is long, it is suggested that the State Council authorize the provincial people's governments to solve the current blocking problem of the approval power of non-disciplinary training institutions, and promote the full implementation of the classified management of off-campus training.