热点英语新闻3：封面报道——补习整顿风暴

Cover Story: Where’s the Pressure on Schoolkids Coming From?

封面报道——补习整顿风暴

extracurricular
adj. 课外的
(of an activity at a school or college) pursued in addition to the normal course of study
curricular adj. 课程的
curriculum n. 课程（复数：curricula）
词组
extracurricular classes 课外课程
extracurricular activities 课外活动
例句
Each child had participated in extracurricular activities at school.  
每个孩子都参加了学校的课外活动。
Freedom to pursue extracurricular activities is totally unrestricted.
参加课外活动的自由完全不受限制。

involution
n. 退化；纠缠；内卷
the act of involving or complicating or the state of being involved or complicated
involute adj. 纷乱的；内卷的
evolution n. 演变; 进化
词组
agricultural involution 农业内卷化
involution economics 内卷经济学
例句
The term "involution" is trending on Chinese social media and is being “blamed” for why “too much education” is leading to young people not wanting to have children.
“内卷”已成为中国社交媒体平台上的热词，也成为了导致当代年轻人“学问越高，越不想生孩子”的罪魁祸首。

rectification
n. 矫正；改正
The rectification of something that is wrong is the act of changing it to make it correct or satisfactory.

rectify v. 改正
rectifiable adj. 可纠正的，可矫正的

词组
optical rectification 光学校正
graphical rectification 图解纠正

例句
Please rectify the mistakes in my bill.
请改正我账单上的错误。

Review and verify the reports on the rectification of related financial institutions.   
审核有关金融机构整改报告的具体工作。
    

Today, I want to look at how China is taking aim at the tutoring industry.

But why is the tutoring industry getting targeted?

Ok, so first things first, the extra-curricular tutoring industry is massive in China. In fact, a recent survey of 4,000 parents by the state-backed newspaper China Education Paper found that 92% enroll their children in extracurricular classes. The same survey also found that half of these families are spending over 10,000 yuan or about $1,500 on such classes on an annual basis.
 
And in case you’re wondering how the industry got so big, well, this all stems from the intense pressure a lot of Chinese parents feel to provide the best resources to their kids. In turn, the kids must work extra hard to keep up in an educational rat race. The term often used to describe this situation in China’s education is “neijuan,” or involution. This essentially means the kind of incessant competition from which no one benefits. Chinese parents feel intense pressure to provide the best resources to their children, who in turn must work extra hard to keep up in an educational rat race.

However, there are growing concerns about the damaging impact such high pressure to constantly study may be having on youngsters. In fact, multiple representatives spoke out about the issue at the Two Sessions. Those are of course the country’s annual political gatherings which took place in early March. Representatives said that seven-days-a-week tutoring sessions are harmful to children’s physical and mental health. Some even suggested banning tutoring institutions altogether. And the government has taken note. On March 6, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to solve the problem.

So, what action has the government taken since then?

Well, within weeks, Shanghai and Beijing initiated crackdowns on the tutoring industry. Out of the entire country, extra-curricular study culture is most prominent in these two cities, where high-quality educational resources are most concentrated and people turn to have more money.

Therefore, Beijing authorities ordered all in-person training classes — which were suspended in early February amid a local resurgence of Covid-19 — to postpone reopening and conduct inspection and rectification.

Shanghai is taking a different approach. Since, Xi’s comments, China’s financial hub has taken aim at the so-called school district housing problem. Just to offer a bit of context, in China, living close to a school is often a prerequisite to a child’s enrollment. This situation has led to the prices of house prices skyrocketing in neighborhoods with the best schools. Shanghai has now sought to rectify the situation by ordering some of the best high schools to allocate at least half of their admission quotas to students living outside their school districts.

The result is that investors are pulling out from major tutoring companies. For instance, shares of New York-listed New Oriental dropped 30%, while shares of its rival TAL Education Group declined 24%.

But I guess the big question will be will these efforts stop the involution culture?

Well, as the CEO of one tutoring group told us, the demand for such services existed long before the industry emerged. So, even if there is a crackdown on tutoring businesses, parents’ demand will sooner or later find other channels. So, there may still be a lot of homework looming on the horizon.