In July, China’s State Council banned after-school tutoring. Companies that operate ed tech platforms or provide online education were forbidden from raising capital through IPOs, and listed companies and foreign investors were barred from investing or acquiring stakes in education firms that teach school subjects.
The industry is enormous: some $10 billion of venture capital flowed into China’s edtech sector in 2020 alone. According to a listing prospectus from New Oriental Education, a major tutoring company, the total number of K-12 student enrolments in after-school tutoring increased from 202.6 million in 2015 to 325.3 million in 2019 and was expected to increase to 659.5 million by 2024.
In an interview conducted on September 1, 2021, Ms. Wenchi Yu discusses the recent crackdown on private tutoring in China.
