The impact of the implementation of ‘double reduction’ policy on tutors in shadow education: legislation goals and early experiences

ABSTRACT

Private supplementary tutoring, also known as shadow education, has had a profound influence on Chinese education during the past twenty years. The rapid expansion of shadow education has attracted the attention and increased regulation of the Chinese government. In July 2021, the Chinese government adopted one of the most restrictive legislative constraints on shadow education: the so-called ‘double reduction’ policy. This policy aims to reduce the dual burden for students of on-campus classes and off-campus tutoring. Through analysis of China’s central and provincial double reduction policies, this study examines the policy goals, accompanying instruments, and delineated implementation strategies. Interviews with tutors from shadow education institutions in five major cities in China uncover the strategies shadow education tutors have applied to mitigate the policy constraints and offer criticism of the Chinese political system and deficiencies in the neoliberal education system.

KEYWORDS:

• Shadow education
• private supplementary tutoring
• education policy
• privatisation
• neoliberalism

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. by the date of 31 October 2021. Although there were some news reports showing ongoing practice of ‘double reduction’ in Hubei province, no policy document was detected in the official website of local government or ministry of Education.

2. Areas were divided according to The Division Method of the East, West, Centre, and North-East Areas of China published by Chinese Bureau of Statistics, 2011.

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no funding to report.