China tightens supervision over after-school programs

China's Ministry of Education has adopted a set of measures to tighten scrutiny of after-school programs, in a bid to ensure proper schooling for children.

The ministry questioned executives of several leading after-school training institutions about their measures to ensure appropriate classes and prevent overcharging, a press release said Thursday.

Seven teams of inspectors have been dispatched to oversee local education administrations' implementation of the ministry's policies, the ministry said.

The Chinese government launched the campaign in February to tackle the problem that a number of after-school programs, mostly for primary and middle school students, taught courses too advanced of the school's normal curriculum and placed children under too much pressure.

Such programs caused unnecessary competition among students and forced parents to send their children to after-school classes even if they did not need to.

Training institutions were told to stop such programs, and local authorities were asked to blacklist poorly-behaved institutions.

The campaign is expected to last until the end of June.

A report from the Chinese Society of Education estimated that after-school programs received more than 137 million students in 2016.