The Ministry of Education published a new rule enhancing monitoring of training institutions offering education off campus so that they get directly linked with a nationwide regulative platform and place all fees pre-charged under the auspices of government.
The national platform, launched in 2021, has been running as an off-campus training public service system with full regulatory and service backing through a website and three applications for parents, institutions and regulators.
Parents and students are able to choose courses, pay and receive refunds, provide feedback and complain, while their rights are protected via the system. Training providers are requested to conform to policy and technical requirements when placing courses and services on the site.
Unifying all institutions for training within the platform will enhance the general quality of off-campus teaching and curb embezzlement, also facilitating "double reduction" reform, aimed at cutting students' homework and extracurricular tutoring in the nine years of mandatory education, a ministry official said.
The platform is employed by regulators to manage pre-paid fees and carry out oversight, improving the digitalization of regulation, the new measures state.
Together with financial regulators, the platform also supports refunds for unused courses based on contractual terms, the measures required.
The "learning before paying" function rolled out on the platform allows parents and students to opt for a post-service payment system, reducing financial risks, it added.
At present, over 120,000 training organizations are registered under the platform, with more training content and enhanced service quality, the ministry added.
At the same time, it has been observed that parents have downloaded application forms on the platform over 10 million times, and the overall page views has reached hundreds of millions, in effect safeguarding the rights and interests of parents and students using the platform.
