Deputies urge greater scrutiny of cram schools

More efforts are needed to regulate after-school training institutions and their use of teaching materials that are too advanced and complicated in core subjects such as Mandarin, math and English to reduce the academic burden on students, a national legislator said.

Yang Shanhong, head of the Anhui Provincial Educational Supervision and Guidance Office and a deputy to the National People's Congress, said one of the top priorities for work on educational supervision and guidelines this year is to reduce students' workload and regulate cram schools.

After-school training has become a large industry and too much afterschool training is causing unnecessary competition among students and placing great financial burdens on families, she said.

Many institutions have engaged in malpractices, including not obtaining business licenses, hiring teachers without credentials and engaging in advanced training, she said.

Moreover, cram schools often require advance payment, which leads to the risk of scams and difficulties getting refunds, she said.

All these violations call for more supervision from government departments, she said.

Education authorities should conduct more random checks on course content and make unannounced visits, Yang said. Cram school advertisements should be curbed, as they have created anxiety among parents and students to compete with their peers. Market regulation authorities should shut down cram schools that have repeatedly violated rules, she said.

Parents also need to form a scientific view of talent cultivation and refrain from competing with others, Yang added.

"Life is a marathon, not a sprint," she said. "They must refrain from the impulse of pulling up seedlings to help them grow."

Schools should also increase the quality of classroom teaching, so students do not have the need for more training after school, she said.

"After-school training should only play a supplementary role in children's education, not become the main component," Yang said.

Liu Xiya, the principal of Xiejiawan Primary School in Chongqing and a deputy to the NPC, said many cram schools focus only on increasing students' grades by rote learning and doing lots of exercises, and the prevalence of after-school training is not conducive to promoting students' all-around development.

Local authorities should establish a unified management platform to regulate cram schools and publish necessary information, including training content, teachers' names and credentials, class hours and fees, she told news website Thecover.cn.

Wang Xuebin, dean of the School of Life Sciences at Linyi University in Shandong province and an NPC deputy, said authorities should also crack down on misconduct in cram school advertisements, as they often include a lot of exaggeration and false content.

He told Qilu Evening News that there should be a limit to the number of cram school ads in public spaces, TV shows and online and measures put in place to make sure their content is authentic and does not create anxiety among parents and students.