Why China Cracked Down on Homework & Private Tutoring

China's War on Homework & Private Tutoring – What It Means for Students

The Brutal Reality of Chinese Education

Imagine waking up at 5:30 AM. You rush through breakfast, head to school for a mandatory 30-minute military-style exercise, and then start your classes—Chinese, English, Math, and more. The school day officially ends at 5:15 PM, but your day is far from over. After a quick dinner, you head to private tutoring sessions, which stretch until 9, 10, or even 11 PM. Then, exhausted, you collapse into bed—only to do it all again the next day.

This cycle is the reality for millions of Chinese students. The pressure is relentless. If you don’t get into the right elementary school, you won’t get into the right middle school. If you don’t get into the right middle school, you won’t get into a top high school. And if you don’t score well on the Gaokao—the make-or-break college entrance exam—you can kiss your chances of a stable, high-paying job goodbye.

The stakes are impossibly high. And in 2021, the Chinese government decided enough was enough.

The $120 Billion Tutoring Industry – And Its Sudden Collapse

For years, China’s hyper-competitive education system fueled a booming private tutoring industry. Desperate parents, eager to give their children an edge, spent massive amounts on after-school lessons. The market for private tutoring quadrupled between 2012 and 2018, even though the number of students remained roughly the same.

At its peak, there were nearly as many private tutoring centers as schools in China. Parents would spend up to $80,000 per child on tutoring before their kids even reached high school. It became an all-out arms race—one that heavily favored wealthy families who could afford extra lessons.

Then, in July 2021, the Chinese government wiped out the industry overnight.

• 120,000 tutoring centers shut down
• Private tutoring was banned
• Foreign nationals were prohibited from working in education
• Thousands of private schools were taken over by the state

It was a shockwave. Thousands of teachers lost their jobs, entire business districts collapsed, and families who relied on tutoring scrambled to find underground alternatives.

But why did the government take such drastic action?

Why Did China Ban Homework and Tutoring?

At first glance, the move seemed aimed at reducing student stress and promoting educational equality. But the reality is far more complex.

1. The Government Was Losing Control Over Education

For decades, tutoring in China operated as a nonprofit service. But as competition grew, these companies went corporate.

• Tutoring firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange
• American tutors in Omaha were teaching kids in Fuzhou via Zoom
• Wealthy families bypassed the Chinese education system entirely, enrolling kids in elite British and American international schools in China

The Communist Party saw this as a threat. Education was slipping out of government control, and the tutoring industry was turning schooling into a commercialized, Western-influenced business. The crackdown was as much about reasserting government control as it was about education reform.

2. The Cost of Education Was Killing Birth Rates

China’s birth rate has been plummeting for years, now lower than even Japan’s. One major reason? The crushing financial burden of raising a child.

• Urban families spent 12% of their income on tutoring
• In Shanghai, some families spent $80,000 per child before high school
• Many young couples decided to skip parenthood entirely to avoid the financial stress

The government hoped that removing the pressure of tutoring would encourage families to have more children. But did it work? Not exactly.

3. Tutoring Undermined China’s "Meritocracy"

China’s education system is built on the idea of meritocracy—the belief that anyone, rich or poor, can succeed if they work hard enough. This belief is centered on the Gaokao, the national college entrance exam.

The Gaokao is everything. Unlike Western colleges that consider extracurriculars and personal essays, Chinese universities only care about your test score. In theory, this makes the system fair—one test, one chance, no favoritism.

But tutoring companies broke this illusion.

They promised students "shortcuts" and marketed exam "hacks" to desperate parents. Some even sold access to former Gaokao exam writers who provided insider test strategies. The rich gained an unfair advantage, and for the first time, the public started questioning whether the system was truly equal.

This threatened the very foundation of China’s social order, forcing the government to step in.

Did the Ban Work?

Not really. Within weeks of the ban, underground tutoring exploded.

• Some tutors rented hotel rooms to secretly teach students
• Others changed their titles from “tutors” to “public speaking coaches”
• Wealthy families hired “nannies” with PhDs who just happened to teach math on the side

Ironically, banning tutoring only made it more expensive. Before, tutors could teach dozens of students in a single class. Now, they had to keep lessons private to avoid detection—so they charged higher fees.

The result? Low and middle-income families lost access to tutoring, while the rich continued getting ahead. The crackdown deepened inequality rather than fixing it.

The Bigger Problem – And Why It Won't Be Solved Easily

The real issue isn’t tutoring. It’s China’s extreme competition.

• Housing prices are among the highest in the world, making financial security feel unattainable.
• Youth unemployment is over 20%, leaving millions of young people with degrees but no jobs.
• Work culture is brutal, with 12-hour workdays (famously called “996”—9 AM to 9 PM, six days a week) becoming the norm.

In such an unforgiving system, education is survival. Parents will do whatever it takes to help their children succeed—with or without tutoring. If private lessons are banned, they’ll find tutors in secret. If exams change, they’ll adapt. The competition doesn’t disappear—it just shifts.

And it’s not just China. The same patterns appear worldwide.

• In the U.S., college admissions have become a high-stakes game, where wealthy students have access to private tutors, SAT coaches, and essay consultants.
• In South Korea, the pressure to excel in education has led to students attending after-school academies (“hagwons”) late into the night.
• In India, families pour everything into coaching centers to prepare for entrance exams that determine their children's future.

Governments can regulate, restrict, or even ban tutoring, but they can’t erase the root problem: the fear of falling behind.

Until the larger economic pressures—job insecurity, income inequality, skyrocketing living costs—are addressed, the education arms race will continue.

The real solution isn’t banning tutoring. It’s creating a system where people don’t feel like their entire future depends on a single test, a single school, or a single job.

And until that happens? The cycle will just keep repeating.

Stay tuned for more deep dives into global education and policy—right here on 3 Min Reads.

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