China’s largest private education company cuts services for youngsters amid tutoring reforms

New Oriental Education said it would cancel all of its tutoring services for preschool and junior secondary school kids

It is the latest in a string of high-profile changes after China revamped its regulations that stifled the private tutoring industry

Reading Time:2 minutes

A man walks in front of the New Oriental Education headquarters in Beijing. Photo: Wikipedia

Published: 3:56pm, 26 Oct 2021Updated: 10:48pm, 26 Oct 2021

New Oriental Education, the largest provider of private educational services in China, announced on Monday night it would stop providing extracurricular classes for kindergarten, primary and junior secondary school students by the end of November.

The tutoring company, which offers a wide variety of educational services, is the latest casualty of China’s policy reforms that upended the private tutoring industry.

Yu Minhong, the chairman and president of New Oriental Education, speaks at the fifth World Internet Conference in China in 2018. Photo: Reuters

The company posted a notice through its subsidiary, Koolearn Technology Holding Limited, on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong website. It read: “According to new regulations, and to make sure our company and operations abide by all laws and supervisions, the board has decided to stop all academic extracurricular training in the mainland for the compulsory education period.”

The company’s board said terminating its services for kids below senior secondary school would create a short-term negative effect on the company’s profits in the new financial year. It also said the change might help New Oriental in the long-term because that segment of their business had lost money in the past financial year.

“We will keep operating businesses that are not related to basic education and focus our resources on other educational products and services,” the notice said.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x