校外培训机构新规 (xiàowài péixùn jīgòu xīnguī): New regulation on extracurricular training organizations

The State Council, China's Cabinet, has issued a document on regulating extracurricular training organizations, which is the first central level regulation on the development of extracurricular training organizations.

The newly released document focuses on regulating extracurricular academic training, and resolutely forbids exam-oriented training or extracurricular training linked with school enrollment.

The document forbids extracurricular training organizations holding any academic ranking tests or competitions, and the hiring of primary and middle school teachers. Meanwhile, these extracurricular training organizations should not charge for more than three months' tuition fees at a time.

The Ministry of Education has said the document is of great significance to establishing a long-term mechanism to regulate extracurricular training, maintain a good education environment, and actually reduce the burden of extracurricular training on primary and middle school students. The instructions are tol be implemented soon.

According to the ministry, its inspections of 382,000 extracurricular training organizations nationwide discovered problems in 259,000 of them.

A nationwide special inspection of extracurricular training organizations will be launched again in October, and the correction work of all the extracurricular training organizations should be completed by the end of 2018, the ministry said.