Dharamshala — Chinese Ministry of Education announces heavy penalties for individuals and organisations providing private tuition to pre-school children and primary and secondary school students. These measures will come into force on October 15, 2023. The Chinese government has once again tightened restrictions on freedom of education and individual freedom.
Since Xi Jinping came to power, he has tightened restrictions on freedom of religion, expression, movement, politics, education and the economy, and life in China has returned to the days of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. Tibetans and other minorities are subject to particularly severe restrictions; they are beaten, arrested and imprisoned simply for exercising their freedom of expression.
The Chinese government has closed all Tibetan and private schools in recent years and only allows government-run educational institutions to teach the ideologies of the CCP and Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as so-called Chinese socialism. It wants the children of minorities, including Tibetans, to speak in Chinese, think in Chinese and work in Chinese, as part of the Sinicisation policy. Today, they are even banning individuals and organisations from offering tutoring to children in pre-school, primary and secondary schools.
According to an announcement in the Chinese media on September 13, 2023, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has taken provisional measures to impose administrative penalties for illegal off-campus tutoring. These measures apply to individuals and organisations offering tutoring to children over the age of 3, as well as to primary and secondary school students.
Online and offline tutoring for children is illegal for the Chinese government. The administrative penalties include warnings, fines, confiscation of illegal income, revocation of licenses, and restrictions on practicing. The maximum fine is 100,000 yuan ($13,712).
According to the report, the Ministry of Education's measures will come into force on October 15, 2023. A similar measure was implemented in 2021, and the Chinese government has once again tightened restrictions on freedom of education and individual freedom. The Ministry of Education spokesperson said, "In the two years since the implementation of the "double reduction" policy, the governance of off-campus tutoring has achieved some progress, but problems such as hidden organization of off-campus tutoring still exist. There is an urgent need to improve the legal system for off-campus tutoring to ensure that the "double-reduction" policy continues to be effective."
