Weekly News Brief on China Education Industry

Updated on 01/25/2022

Here is the weekly recap of China education news. Sources are right after the texts.

Educational Policy

Henan Requires Primary and Secondary School Students to Boycott Illegal Training

As the winter vacation approaches, Henan Provincial Department of Education requires students to sign a letter of commitment to refuse to participate in subject-based training during the winter break, violators will be recorded in students' personal management files. Henan Province has become the first province in China to take students as the constrained subjects to boycott after-school training.

At present, all local departments in Henan Province have not received any further instructions. Currently, the education departments temporarily make records according to the requirements, however, the specific impact, filing standards and elimination process need to be further explained.

(Source: Caixin)

Guangdong Promotes Online Inspection on Illegal Subject-based Training

Recently, Guangdong Provincial Department of Education and other five departments jointly issued an action plan to promote online inspection on illegal subject-based training, and decided to focus on online subject-based training from now to the end of February.

According to the plan, the action will focus on seven aspects: prohibiting unlicensed institutions from organizing subject-based training, forbidding licensed institutions organizing illegal subject-based training, enhancing the supervision on third-party website platforms, cleaning up relevant advertisements, strictly preventing platforms from providing technical support for illegal training, and standardizing the management on online schools.

(Source: The Paper)

Industry Insights

2022 National Education Conference Was Held in Beijing

The 2022 national education conference was held in Beijing on January 16 and 17. The meeting pointed out that in the past year, the education system insisted on viewing education from the political point, improving and running education based on people's livehood and regularity. The profound changes have taken place in the internal and external environment of education.

The meeting also defined the priorities of the educational works in 2022, including vigorously developing vocational education to meet the needs of new technologies and industrial changes, optimizing the development environment, enhancing the adaptability of vocational education and improving the connotation.

(Source: Guangming Daily)

Global News

Australia Wavies Visa Application Fees for International Students

Australia will waive visa application fees for international students in a bid to boost a labor shortage caused by the pandemic, if they can travel to the country within the coming weeks.

International students applying to Australia will not have to pay a visa application fee of $630 in the next eight weeks. The new policy will also apply to 150,000 international students who have already submitted applications.

(Source: China Qiaowang)

The Oral Section of the IELTS Exam Will Go Online in 2022

Starting mid-year 2022, the oral section of the IELTS exam will be held virtually in China, the British Council announced on January 19. Examiners will hold one-on-one video tests for both the paper and the computerized versions of the IELTS, and the face-to-face oral test will be canceled.

Despite being moved online, the test's content, length, difficulty and scoring standards remain the same. Virtual oral testing will help make the exam more flexible, so there can be more test sessions and dates to meet demand.

(Source: China Daily)

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