Children take part in outdoor activity with the guidance of teacher at Beijing Primary School in Beijing, capital of China, July 19, 2021. Photo: Xinhua

China's top educational authority on Monday rolled out a guideline barring off-campus tutoring for primary and secondary schools from exceeding the course syllabus and strengthening supervision on off-campus tutoring, as part of the country's efforts to further lift the pressure on students and parents.

The guideline, issued by the Ministry of Education, clarified the requirements on the feasibility and suitability of the tutoring materials. It stressed that they must not go further than the school syllabus. A negative list of 12 items was also outlined with emphasis on the political bottom line that must be kept to ensure education on ideology stays on the right track.

Personnel on the editing board of the materials must have a firm political stance to fully implement the central government's education policy, with working experience in related fields of no less than three years, the guideline said. 

Academic staff should hold teaching qualification certificates, and non-academic staff should have relevant industry qualifications or proof of professional competence, it added.

Supervision of the tutoring agencies has also been strengthened in the guideline, which requires educational authorities to categorize the supervision for online and offline classes as well as academic and non-academic ones. For academic materials, the internal review by the tutoring agencies and external examination by educational authorities will be combined. 

The Chinese government has rolled out a slew of measures for the new semester nationwide, which have been described as the "most stringent in decades" by industrial observers, to ease the burden and anxiety for students and parents alike, including suspending off-campus curriculum subject tutoring courses for students on national holidays and reducing the frequency of exams.

Global Times