Evolving micro-level processes of demand for private supplementary tutoring: patterns and implications at primary and lower secondary levels in China

ABSTRACT

Recent decades have brought global expansion of private supplementary tutoring, and China is among countries in which patterns have been especially dramatic. National survey data indicate that 29.8% of primary and lower secondary students had received private supplementary tutoring in 2014, with proportions rising at higher levels of the school system. However, such statistics present only a snapshot of demand and might suggest that decisions to invest in tutoring are one-off in nature. This paper draws on interviews to show changing patterns of demand by individual parents at different times. Factors influencing parental choices include not only cost and availability of time but also children’s academic performance, children’s different stages of schooling and education system reforms. Over time parents may expand or reduce their demand, change balances between academic and non-academic tutoring, and switch between different types and providers of tutoring. This paper thus shows that analyses of demand need to be more nuanced than tends to be the case in analyses of large-scale survey data. The paper is grounded in the Chinese context, but has conceptual implications of wider relevance.

KEYWORDS:

• Beijing
• China
• demand
• private supplementary tutoring
• shadow education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the quantitative findings of this study are available from the Institute of Social Science Survey (ISSS) at Peking University. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under licence for this study. Data are available from http://www.isss.pku.edu.cn/cfps/with the permission of ISSS.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Junyan Liu

Junyan Liu is a part-time postdoctoral fellow of the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong with a special interest in private supplementary tutoring. She graduated with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Peking University. She obtained a doctoral degree in Comparative Education from the University of Hong Kong in 2017. Between 2007 and 2013 she worked in the Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences, focusing on studies of education policy and planning in Beijing. Correspondence: Comparative Education Research Centre, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China. E-mail: [email protected].

Mark Bray

Mark Bray is UNESCO Chair Professor in Comparative Education and Director of the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong. He has taught at that University since 1986. Between 2006 and 2010 he took leave to work in Paris as Director of UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). He previously taught in secondary schools in Kenya and Nigeria, and at the Universities of Edinburgh, Papua New Guinea and London. Correspondence: Comparative Education Research Centre, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China. E-mail: [email protected].