CPPCC members call for safeguarding the safety of prepayments in the off-campus education training market, and the Ministry of Education responds.

The Ministry of Education recently announced on its website a response to a proposal from the national committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference on ensuring the safety of prepayments in the off-campus education training market through comprehensive measures. The Ministry of Education, in consultation with the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Financial Regulatory Authority, has provided a response.

“The supervision of off-campus training prepayment is an important part of off-campus training governance.” The Ministry of Education explained that in order to strengthen the supervision of off-campus training prepayment, in 2021, the Ministry of Education issued, jointly with five other departments, the “Notice on Strengthening the Supervision of Prepayments in Off-Campus Training Institutions” (No. 2 of the Education Supervision and Management Function), which clarified that the supervision of off-campus training prepayment would be implemented through bank deposit or risk guarantee methods. In 2023, the Ministry of Education issued, jointly with four other departments, the “Interim Measures for the Financial Management of Off-Campus Training Institutions” (No. 2 of the Education Supervision and Management Office), which specified that the pre-collected training service fees of off-campus training institutions should be managed as liabilities and prohibited from confirming income in advance or delay. In 2, the Ministry of Education and 13 other departments issued the “Opinions on Standardizing Non-academic After-school Training for Primary and Middle School Students” (No. 4 of Education Supervision and Management), which further clarified that non-academic training institutions should implement designated bank, special account, and special fund management for training fees. Currently, the off-campus training prepayment supervision system based on bank supervision accounts has been basically established. However, due to considerations of their own interests, some institutions still evade prepayment supervision requirements and fail to deposit pre-collected training fees into supervised accounts, resulting in occasional problems such as difficulties in refunds and running away with funds.

The Ministry of Education will strengthen the supervision and law enforcement inspection of prepayment supervision, investigate and handle violations of prepayment management regulations in accordance with the “Off-campus Training Administrative Penalty Measures”, and also strengthen publicity and guidance for students and parents, work with relevant departments to provide guidance for off-campus training consumer education, enhance students’ and parents’ awareness of consumer protection, and jointly reduce the occurrence of problems that violate the interests of students and parents.

The Ministry of Education stated that information disclosure is an important way to strengthen the supervision of off-campus training and a powerful measure to improve credibility. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the “Regulations on the Administration of Market Entity Registration of the People’s Republic of China,” market entities should place their business licenses in a conspicuous position at their registered address or main place of business. In daily supervision, local authorities explicitly require training institutions to have “complete certificates and licenses” and to publicize relevant certificates and licenses in a conspicuous position. In 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission issued, jointly with the Ministry of Education and the State Administration for Market Regulation, the “Notice on Strengthening the Supervision of Charging Fees for Subject-based After-school Training for Compulsory Education Students” (No. 1279), which clearly stipulates that training institutions should publicly disclose information such as off-campus training content, training duration, charging standards, and teacher qualifications through websites, charging locations, online applications, media, and other channels to accept social supervision. At the same time, departments such as the Market Supervision Administration will include price fraud behaviors such as not listing clear prices, making original prices up virtually, and false discounts in the content of national education fee special inspections. To facilitate parents’ understanding of training institution information, the Ministry of Education has built a national off-campus training supervision and service platform. Parents can query information such as institution qualifications, charging status, employees, training materials, and training courses through the platform. The main problem is that some institutions violate management regulations and evade supervision.

The Ministry of Education will promote the management of training institutions in various regions through the national off-campus education training supervision and service integrated platform and the “Off-campus Training Parent End” App application, encourage them to actively disclose their information, strengthen social supervision, and use credit systems to严厉惩治违法失信行为,着力防范化解风险,切实维护人民群众的合法权益。

The response also mentioned that the social credit system is an important part of the socialist market economy system and social governance system. In accordance with the requirements of the “General Office of the State Council on Standardizing the Development of Off-campus Training Institutions,” an “blacklist” system is fully implemented for off-campus training institutions. Institutions listed on the “blacklist” are included in the national credit information sharing platform and subject to joint punishment in accordance with relevant regulations. The non-profit off-campus training institutions’ credit

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