The Collapse of China’s Online Tutoring Platforms
Thousands of highly qualified teachers across the United States work with students all over the world through online platforms. Because of the time difference, many teachers rise early to begin teaching for the day, often waking up between 4 and 5 AM.
How is this affecting online tutoring in the US?
Thousands of highly qualified teachers across the United States work with students all over the world through online platforms. Because of the time difference, many teachers rise early to begin teaching for the day, often waking up between 4 and 5 AM.
In September, China banned private tutors from providing online tutoring, ramping up its effort to stamp out all for-profit tutoring. Authorities in China banned for-profit tutoring in subjects on the school curriculum in an effort to ease pressure on children and parents. A competitive higher education system has made tutoring services popular with parents. In China, wealthy and middle-class parents see private English tutoring–especially led by native English speakers–as a way to get ahead, a canny edge on other students against whom their own children would some day have to compete. The official reason for the crackdown is that the financial pressure on Chinese families and academic pressure on Chinese children have become untenable. The high-stakes culture around education in China has become so fraught that many parents say that they cannot justify having another child, despite the Chinese government’s encouraging them to do so. Because the government recognized this issue, it decided to act.
This government crackdown will dramatically change not only the fate not only of online tutoring companies but also of these highly qualified teachers. Some may decide to go “underground,” while others may try to find alternative ways to work elsewhere.
As a result of China’s ban on online tutoring, SpiderSmart has been receiving a heavy influx of tutor applicants. We’ve found that the quality of these tutors is highly variable. While some are quite skilled, others have been teaching kids using detailed scripts.
Because SpiderSmart prioritizes every student as an individual, we highly emphasize using a holistic approach when teaching our students. Our Human Resource (HR) team continuously works to hire the best teachers and ensure every student is matched with the right teacher.
Here’s how SpiderSmart chooses the right teachers:
- We run an extensive background check on all of our applicants. We recognize the importance of providing a safe, fun, and interactive learning environment for all of our students. We want every student to feel comfortable with their teacher, and to do that, we run a very strict background check on each applicant.
- Our HR team conducts a multi-step interview to ensure the quality of the tutor applicant. We conduct multiple interview sessions, including mock teaching sessions, with the applicant to ensure the quality of each teacher.
At the end of the day, SpiderSmart always puts our kids first. We will continue to work endlessly to provide the best quality services with the best quality teachers.