981820 EAU Environment & Urbanization
A changing environment of urban
Wei Zhang is a Professor in
the Institute of Curriculum
and Instruction in the
Faculty of Education at East
China Normal University,
Shanghai. She is also
an Honorary Professor
at Aarhus University,
Denmark.
Address: East China Normal
University, Institute of
Curriculum and Instruction,
Centre for International
Research in Supplementary
Tutoring, Faculty of
Education, 3663 North
Zhongshan Road, Shanghai
200062, China; email:
wzhang@ed.ecnu.edu.cn
Mark Bray is Distinguished
Chair Professor in the
Faculty of Education at East
China Normal University,
Shanghai. He also holds
the UNESCO Chair in
Comparative Education
at the University of Hong
Kong.
Email: mbray@hku.hk
1. Bray, Mark (1999), The
Shadow Education System:
Private Tutoring and Its
Implications for Planners,
UNESCO International Institute
for Educational Planning
(IIEP), Paris, 97 pages; also
Zhang, Wei and Yoko Yamato
(2018), “Shadow education
in East Asia: entrenched but
evolving private supplementary
tutoring”, in Kerry Kennedy
Environment & Urbanization Copyright © 2020 International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
Vol 33(1): 43–62. DOI: 10.1177/0956247820981820  www.sagepublications.com
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247820981820
education: historical and spatial
analysis of private supplementary
tutoring in China
Wei Zhang AND Mark Bray
Abstract  Recent decades have brought dramatic urbanization to China.
Between 1978 and 2018, the urban population rose from 17.9 per cent to 59.6 per
cent of the total. Urbanization has many implications, including for education.
China’s government has long been concerned about imbalances in access to and
quality of schooling, and new imbalances have been introduced through market
forces in the so-called shadow education sector of private supplementary tutoring,
arising from both demand and supply. Urban families in particular seek private
supplementary tutoring, and tutorial companies favour densely populated areas for
higher enrolments. China has the world’s largest school system and most extensive
shadow provision. This paper conceptualizes the space of shadow provision in
educational, social and geographical terms. It highlights the changing scale and
nature of private tutoring, observes the roles of new technologies and government
regulations, notes the impact of COVID-19, and argues that shadow education
both shapes and is shaped by urbanization.
Keywords  China / COVID-19 / private tutoring / regulations / shadow
education / space / technology
I. Introduction
This paper focuses on what commentators commonly call the shadow
education system of supplementary tutoring. The shadow metaphor is
invoked because the curricula of supplementary tutoring closely track the
curricula of classroom education.(1) The paper is concerned with tutoring
in academic subjects provided on a fee-charging basis by companies,
teachers undertaking such work in addition to their regular duties, and
informal suppliers such as university students. Long prominent in such
countries as South Korea, Japan and Singapore, shadow education has
become a global phenomenon.(2) It has also become very prominent in
China.(3)
Over the past five decades, China has also experienced dramatic
urbanization. According to official statistics, the level of urbanization
increased from 17.9 per cent in 1978 to 59.6 per cent in 2018.(4) This shift
has brought changes of many kinds, including in the education sector. Yet
while it is relatively common to note relationships between urbanization
43
EN V I RON M ENT & URB A N I Z A T I ON Vol 33 No 1 April 2021

and schooling, both in China and internationally,(5) little attention has and John C K Lee (editors),
Routledge International
been given to relationships between urbanization and shadow education.
Handbook on Schools and
The present paper observes that forces operate in both directions, since Schooling in Asia, Routledge,
urbanization and shadow education in China to some extent shape each London, pages 323–332.
other. 2. Aurini, Janice, Scott Davies
An indication of the scale of shadow education is provided by and Julian Dierkes (editors)
(2013), Out of the Shadows:
a household survey by the China Institute for Educational Finance The Global Intensification of
Research.(6) In 2017, the survey showed, shadow education participation Supplementary Education,
rates were highest in northeastern China, at 60.8 per cent. Next highest Emerald, Bingley, 263
pages; also Bray, Mark
were the eastern areas (38.1 per cent), central areas (38.0 per cent)
(2017), “Schooling and its
and western areas (30.5 per cent). Further, participation rates of urban supplements: changing global
students, at 44.8 per cent, were more than double the 21.8 per cent of patterns and implications
rural students. Average household annual expenditures on tutoring were for comparative education”,
Comparative Education Review
RMB 5,021 (US$ 724) per student nationwide. Urban China had not only Vol 62, No 3, pages 469–491.
higher enrolment rates but also higher per-capita expenditures, at RMB 3. Zhang, Wei and Mark Bray
5,762 (US$ 831). Annual expenditures for rural students, by contrast, were (2016), “Shadow education: the
only RMB 1,580 (US$ 228) per student. rise and implications of private
supplementary tutoring”,
With such matters in mind, the paper begins with a conceptual
in Shibao Guo and Yan Guo
framework that includes a focus on the broad international picture before (editors), Spotlight on China:
elaborating on Chinese specifics. Employing the concept of space,(7) the Changes in Education under
paper then analyses ways in which the development of shadow education China’s Market Economy,
Sense, Rotterdam, pages
has changed learning spaces and power dynamics. The following section 85–99; also Deloitte (2018), A
discusses international spatial disparities in shadow education, both New Era of Education: China
socially and geographically. In subsequent sections, the paper notes the Education Development Report,
accessed 7 July 2020 at https://
roles of technologies, the implications of government regulations, and www2.deloitte.com/cn/en/
the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic that hit in 2020. The final section pages/technology-media-and-
returns to the broader framework to identify insights not only for China telecommunications/articles/
but also more widely. new-era-of-education-china-
education-development-
report-2018.html; and Deloitte
(2019), Revitalizing Education:
II. International Perspectives On The Nature And Scale Opportunities in Dynamics,
accessed 12 July 2020 at
Of Shadow Education https://www2.deloitte.com/cn/
en/pages/technology-media-
To provide a contextual framework, this section elaborates on the nature and-telecommunications/
of shadow education and how it differs from schooling. It also describes articles/china-education-
development-report.html.
the forces underlying the expansion of shadow education, particularly as
4. China, National Bureau
they relate to urbanization. of Statistics (2019), China
Shadow education is voluntary, unlike schooling, which across the Statistical Yearbook, Beijing,
globe is compulsory, at least at the levels of primary and commonly accessed 17 November 2020
at http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/
lower-secondary education. Families choose whether to invest in shadow
ndsj/2019/indexeh.htm.
education according to their aspirations, capacity to pay, and availability
5. See e.g. Coelen, Thomas,
of the service. The corollary of compulsory schooling is that governments Anna J Heinrich and Angela
have the obligation to provide it. No such obligation applies to shadow Million (2019), “Local
education, which operates in the private sector albeit in a few cases educational landscapes in
Germany: interfaces and
through private–public partnerships. interlacings between education
In China and many other countries, significant numbers of and urban development”,
commercial enterprises supply shadow education. Other suppliers include in Holger Jahnke, Caroline
Kramer and Peter Meusburger
regular teachers, university students and other informal providers. Many
(editors), Geographies of
of the teachers work in public schools and offer private supplementary Schooling, Springer, Cham,
tutoring outside school hours to earn extra income, usually without pages 35–53; Tian, Li (2016),
formal approval of the governments that are their principal employers. “Behind the growth: planning
education in China during
Table 1 shows major differences in the emphases of schooling and shadow rapid urbanization”, Journal
education. of Planning Education and

44

Emphases of schooling and shadow education
Schooling
Whole-person development
Education for all
Mandated roles to prepare for citizenship;
standardized
More conservative and stable; slow to change
Teachers as professional educators
Research Vol 36, No 4, pages
465–475; and Xu, Shuqin and
Wing-Wah Law (2015), “Rural
education and urbanization:
experiences and struggles in
China since the late 1970s”,
Global Education Review Vol 2,
No 4, pages 78–100.
6. Wei, Yi (2018), The 2017
Chinese Family Survey of
Educational Expenditure [in
Chinese], China Institute for
Educational Finance Research,
accessed 24 November 2020
at http://ciefr.pku.edu.cn/cbw/
kyjb/2018/03/kyjb_5257.shtml.
7. Gulson, Kalervo N and
Colin Symes (2007), “Knowing
one’s place: educational
theory, policy, and the spatial
turn”, in Kalervo N Gulson
and Colin Symes (editors),
Spatial Theories of Education:
Policy and Geography
Matters, Routledge, New York,
pages 1–16.
8. Hollis, Martin (1982),
“Education as a positional
good”, Journal of Philosophy of
Education Vol 16, No 2, pages
235–244.
9. See reference 1, Zhang and
Yamato (2018); also Chou,
Chuing Prudence (2014),
“A matter of trust: shadow
education in Taiwan”, Revue
Internationale d’Éducation
de Sèvres, Education in Asia
in 2014: What Global Issues?,
accessed 17 November 2020
at http://journals.openedition.
org/ries/3800; and Zhang, Wei
(2020), “Shadow education in
the service of tiger parenting:
strategies used by middle-class
families in China”, European
Journal of Education Vol 55, No
3, pages 388–404.
A C H A N G I N G EN V I RON M ENT O F URB A N EDU C A T I ON
Ta b l e 1
Shadow education
Differentiated and individualized learning
Cater for some
Market-driven; varying in purpose, shape and nature
More aggressive, flexible and adaptive to change
Tutors as service providers
The core factor underlying most family decisions to seek shadow
education is social competition. Families particularly recognize links
between examination grades and subsequent access to remunerative
employment. In most countries, schooling is itself stratified, with students
allocated to different streams at transition points, especially at the end
of lower-secondary schooling. Families know that grades at the end of
upper-secondary schooling are the main determinant of post-secondary
careers. Schooling, as Hollis(8) points out, is a positional good insofar as the
chief determinant of whether people consider themselves to have secured
adequate learning and qualifications is whether the amounts and qualities
of schooling are greater than those held by peers and competitors. Social
competition has been intensified in most countries by expanded access
to educational opportunities, greater geographic mobility, and the forces
of globalization. Cultural factors may also play a role, and the fact that
shadow education has been especially prominent in East Asian societies has
commonly been linked to Confucian values of diligence and meritocracy.(9)
To illustrate the global nature of shadow education, examples from
both high-income and middle-income countries are instructive.
•• In England and Wales, a 2019 survey found that 27 per cent of
nationally sampled students aged 11–16, and 41 per cent of London
students, had received private tutoring at some time.(10)
•• In Egypt, a 2012 national survey reported extensive private tutoring in all
grades. Even in Grade 1, 33 per cent of surveyed students were receiving
private lessons, and a further 9 per cent were in fee-paying help groups.
In Grade 6, these numbers were 61 per cent and 12 per cent; in Grade 9
they were 64 per cent and 10 per cent; and in Grade 12, 56 per cent and
2 per cent respectively.(11) Urban students were considerably more likely
than rural students to receive such shadow education.
•• In South Korea, national shadow education enrolment rates in 2019
were reported to be 83.5 per cent in elementary school, 71 per cent in
middle school, and 68 per cent in general high school.(12) Across all
grades, enrolment rates were reported to be 88 per cent in Seoul (the
national capital), 77 per cent in other large cities, 58 per cent in small
and medium-sized cities, and 47 per cent in rural areas.
The fact that in each of these countries shadow education enrolment rates
were higher in urban than rural areas reflects both demand and supply.
45
EN V I RON M ENT & URB A N I Z A T I ON Vol 33 No 1 April 2021

Urban areas have greater social competition and more families able to 10. Sutton Trust (2019), Private
Tuition Polling 2019, accessed
afford shadow education. On the supply side, companies favour locations
18 July 2020 at https://
with greater population densities; and universities, which commonly www.suttontrust.com/wp-
host students providing tutoring on a part-time basis, are more likely to content/uploads/2019/12/
be located in cities. However, schoolteachers are distributed more evenly, PrivateTuition2019-
PollingTables.pdf and https://
and are more likely to be the major suppliers of tutoring in rural areas. www.suttontrust.com/news-
This pattern was especially evident in Egypt, where salaries were low and opinion/all-news-opinion/
teachers in both urban and rural areas felt the need to supplement their one-in-four-teachers-take-
on-private-tuition-outside-of-
incomes. school.
Also important are variations in the modes of tutoring. Whereas
11. Assaad, Ragui and Caroline
schooling is generally provided in classes of up to 50 pupils or even Krafft (2015), “Is free basic
more, much shadow education is provided one-to-one or in small groups. education in Egypt a reality or a
However, shadow education may also be provided in full classes and even myth?”. International Journal of
Educational Development Vol
large lecture theatres. Further, new technologies have permitted tutoring 45, No 1, pages 16–30, page 23.
through the internet across national boundaries. Such tutoring can also 12. KOSIS (2020), Participation
be one-to-one, one-to-small-group or one-to-many (even thousands), and Rate on Private Education
can combine distance approaches with in-person teaching.(13) by School Level and
Characteristics, Korean
Finally, a major contextual factor is a general acceptance of
Statistical Information
neoliberalism in the education sector. Introduction of market forces was Service, accessed 29 June
a deliberate strategy by some governments to increase competition, with 2020 at http://kosis.kr/eng/
the goals of improved efficiency, expanded consumer (family) choice, and statisticsList/statisticsListIndex.
do?menuId=M_01_01&vwcd=
reduced burden on the public purse.(14) Commencing in such countries MT_ETITLE&parmTabId=M_01_
as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the US, the approach spread 01&statId=1963003&themaId=#
to become a global phenomenon. Shadow education, however, is an SelectStatsBoxDiv.
example of what Verger et al.(15) call privatization by default rather than 13. Takashiro, Naomi (2018),
“Technology use and middle
by deliberate strategy. Indeed, most governments, insofar as they have
school students’ participation
formulated a stance on shadow education, view it as problematic rather in shadow education in Japan”,
than something to be encouraged. Most problematic is the role of shadow International Psychology
education in maintaining and exacerbating social inequalities. Other Bulletin Vol 22, No 4, pages
14–21; also Zhang, Wei and
problems include the study burden on students and the negative impact Mark Bray (2020), “Comparative
of shadow education on mainstream schooling.(16) research on shadow education:
achievements, challenges, and
the agenda ahead”, European
Journal of Education Vol 55, No
III. Society And Education In China 3, pages 322–341.
14. Hill, Dave and Ravi Kumar
The dramatic pace of urbanization in China since 1978 has reflected and (2009), Global Neoliberalism
contributed to other fundamental shifts in Chinese society. Political, and Education and Its
economic and social changes have shaped each other, as have changes in Consequences, Routledge,
London, 262 pages.
both regular schooling and shadow education.
15. Verger, Antoni, Clara
The year 1978 was a turning point following the 1966–76 Cultural Fontdevila and Adrián Zancajo
Revolution, as the beginning of China’s “open door” policy and the shift (2016), The Privatization of
to a market orientation after the central planning implemented strictly Education: A Political Economy
of Global Education Reform,
since 1949. The shift permitted huge economic growth, with per-capita Teachers College Press, New
GDP rising from US$ 307 in 1978 to US$ 8,254 (at constant 2010 prices) York, page 7.
in 2019.(17) This economic growth was particularly achieved through 16. See reference 2, Aurini et
industrialization, which in turn was both facilitated by and contributed al. (2013); also see reference 2,
to urbanization. Bray (2017).
Economic growth has interacted with urbanization in three ways.(18) 17. World Bank (2020), “GDP
per capita (constant 2010
First, in the “magnet” phase, factories sprang up in and around cities, US$) - China”, accessed 20 July
offering incomes higher than those available in subsistence agriculture. 2020 at https://data.worldbank.
Second was the “building binge” in which urban construction itself org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.
KD?locations=CN.
pushed economic growth; and third was the “smart city” phase in which
the density of skilled workers enabled creation of knowledge networks

46
 A C H A N G I N G EN V I RON M ENT O F URB A N EDU C A T I ON

F ig u r e 1
Expansion of primary, secondary and higher education in China (1978–2019)

NOTE: The unit for enrolment is 10,000 students, and the unit for enrolment rate/ratio is %.

SOURCE: Based on data in China, Ministry of Education (2019), Statistical Bulletin of the National Education
Development in 2019 [in Chinese], Beijing.

18. Kroeber, Arthur R (2016),
China’s Economy: What
Everyone Needs to Know,
Oxford University Press, New
York, 325 pages, page 68.
19. See e.g. Fang, Yiping and
Anirban Pal (2016), “Drivers
of urban sprawl in urbanizing
China: a political ecology
analysis”, Environment and
Urbanization Vol 28, No 2,
pages 599–616; and Li, Bingqin,
Chunlai Chen and Biliang Hu
(2016), “Governing urbanization
and the New Urbanization
Plan in China”, Environment
and Urbanization Vol 28, No 2,
pages 515–534.
that generated productivity in particular industries. These phases occurred
at different times in different parts of the country, and to date only a few
cities have moved to the third phase. As such, urbanization is an ongoing
process.
Recognizing that qualitative aspects of markets vary in cities of
different sizes, it is common to refer to cities as belonging to one of four
tiers. While no official list places cities in any of these tiers, Tier 1 cities
are generally agreed to be Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Other dynamics of change also affect growth and development of cities
in complex ways.(19)
Education has contributed significantly to urbanization by training
skilled labourers, socializing children into responsible citizens, and
promoting research and development; and schools and universities have
themselves served as important engines of urbanization. Figure 1 shows
the remarkable expansion of education at all levels. These quantitative
achievements have been accompanied by equally impressive qualitative
achievements.(20) Most was accomplished through the public sector,
but the private sector emerged during the 1980s and 1990s and became
especially visible at the kindergarten level.(21) In 2019, 56.2 per cent of
47
EN V I RON M ENT & URB A N I Z A T I ON Vol 33 No 1 April 2021

kindergarten students were in private institutions. This compared with 20. Guo, Shibao and Yan Guo
(2016), “Changes in education
8.9 per cent among primary students, and 14.2 per cent and 9.0 per cent
under China’s market
respectively among lower- and upper-secondary students.(22) economy: an introduction”,
During the initial period after 1949, suspended during the Cultural in Shibao Guo and Yan Guo
Revolution but then revived, some schools were designated for extra (editors), Spotlight on China:
Changes in Education under
resourcing as key institutions.(23) A national government decision(24) China’s Market Economy,
removed the classification, but the vocabulary remains in common Sense Publishers, Rotterdam,
parlance and some institutions are still considerably better resourced than pages 1–14.
others. Differentials exist within geographic zones, but also markedly 21. Zhou, Haitao, Qiang Liu,
Jing Tian and Qian Li (2018),
across rural and urban areas because the key schools are almost all urban.
Private Education in China:
Rural areas, long challenged in access to human and physical resources, Achievement and Challenge,
have further suffered from depopulation. Many rural children have been Springer, Singapore, 216 pages.
“left behind” by parents who have migrated to cities for work.(25) In 22. China, Ministry of Education
response to the declining school-aged population in rural areas as a result (2019), Statistical Bulletin
of the National Education
of urbanization, the government has by stages since 2001 reallocated Development in 2019 [in
educational resources. Many rural small schools and “teaching sites” have Chinese], Beijing.
been closed, requiring children in remote locations to move to county 23. Ye, Hua (2015), “Key-point
or town schools.(26) Such factors create complex pictures. Some children schools and entry into tertiary
are left behind in remote areas; others board or move with relatives to education in China”, Chinese
Sociological Review Vol 47, No
counties and towns; and others join their parents in cities. 2, pages 128–153.
Within the school system, major watersheds occur at the end of lower- 24. China, State Council (2006),
secondary (Grade 9) school, when students sit the Zhongkao examination, Compulsory Education Law
on the basis of which they will either have their studies terminated of the People’s Republic of
China [amended], Beijing,
or proceed to stratified upper-secondary schools. At the end of upper- Article 22, accessed 17
secondary schooling (Grade 12), students sit the Gaokao examination, November 2020 at http://
which again determines whether they can continue their studies with english.www.gov.cn/archive/
entry to post-secondary institutions of varying levels of prestige. In part laws_regulations/2014/08/23/
content_281474983042154.
because of achievements in expanding lower levels of schooling, the htm.
Zhongkao and Gaokao examinations have become even more competitive 25. Zhang, Huafeng (2017),
than in earlier periods. Expansion of post-secondary education means “Opportunity or new poverty
that larger proportions of Grade 12 students can proceed with further trap: rural-urban education
disparity and internal migration
study, but stratification within the system means that competition is in China”, China Economic
in some respects even fiercer than before. This in turn has implications Review Vol 44, pages 112–124.
for shadow education. To get into a good post-secondary institution it 26. Lan, Zhenli and Sen Li
is essential to secure high grades, which is easier from a good upper- (2017), “On the dilemmas
secondary school. And to get into a good upper-secondary school it is and balances of closing and
merging schools” [in Chinese],
similarly essential to have secured high grades at each stage, which is Journal of Teaching and
easier from good institutions, extending all the way back to the entry Administration Vol 7, pages
system for kindergartens. Students cannot be pushed out of the school 8–11.
system during the period of compulsory education, but they are ranked
at each stage and most families view shadow education as an essential
instrument in the competition.
Also pertinent are the hukou residence permits that govern access to
public services. Many migrant workers in cities still have hukou residence
only in their places of origin, and therefore have limited access in cities not
only to medical care and public housing, but also to schooling. According
to UNICEF,(27) 34.2 million children lacked hukou status in their cities of 27. UNICEF (2017), Population
residence. Initially most city authorities denied migrant children access to Status of Children in China
in 2015: Facts and Figures [in
public schools, but this prohibition was relaxed during the 2010s for the Chinese], Beijing.
period of compulsory education. Children excluded from public schools 28. Chen, Jiaxin (2020), “Self-
attended private schools for migrants, some of which were unlicensed.(28) abandonment or seeking
In 2019, about 14.3 million migrant children attended Grades 1–9 in an alternative way out:

48

understanding Chinese rural
migrant children’s resistance
to schooling”, British Journal of
Sociology of Education Vol 41,
No 2, pages 253–268; also Yu,
Min (2018), “Rethinking migrant
children schools in China:
activism, collective identity
and guanxi”, Comparative
Education Review Vol 62, No 3,
pages 429–448.
29. See reference 22.
30. Liu, Fengshu (2016), “The
rise of the ‘priceless’ child in
China”, Comparative Education
Review Vol 60, No 1, pages
105–130.
31. See reference 9, Zhang
(2020).
32. See reference 3, Deloitte
(2018), page 1.
33. See reference 1, Zhang
and Yamato (2018); also see
reference 3, Deloitte (2018).
34. See reference 7, page 8.
35. Huang, Jun (1989),
“Expanding field of services,
improving education
efficiencies” [in Chinese],
Research on Upper Vocational
Education of State-owned Land
and Resources No 3.
A C H A N G I N G EN V I RON M ENT O F URB A N EDU C A T I ON
urban schools,(29) but those without urban hukou still had to return to
their places of origin for the Zhongkao examination.
Also pertinent is the one-child policy launched in 1979 but modified
in the mid-1980s to permit rural parents a second child if the first was
a daughter. The policy remained in effect for three decades, causing
demographic and other imbalances between rural and urban areas. In
2013 the policy was revised to permit two children in families having at
least one only-child parent, and then in 2015 all families were allowed
two children. The pertinence for this paper lies first in the differentiation
for three decades between rural and urban areas, and second the policy’s
contribution to the rise of the “priceless child” on whom hopes and
aspirations were bestowed.(30) On the one hand, such children received
resources including for shadow education, but on the other hand they
experienced pressures including through shadow education.(31) The impact
of the two-child policy will be felt in the education sector in due course,
but meanwhile, as noted by Deloitte,(32) adjustment of the population
structure and expansion of household consumption has much expanded
the education market.
IV. Changing Spaces And Power Dynamics In
Shadow Education
Between 1949 and 1978, no private education of any kind was permitted
in China’s schooling or in the shadow. The emergence of private schooling
during the 1980s was modest, but gathered speed in the 1990s and beyond,
and was accompanied from the early 1990s by the emergence of shadow
education. Over subsequent decades, China’s shadow education industry
became the largest in the world.(33) This section analyses its historical
development, drawing on the literature and on empirical data collected by
the authors between 1994 and 2020 from policymakers, school principals,
teachers, owners of tutoring companies, tutors and families.
Understanding of the expansion and changing modes of shadow
education may be enhanced by the conceptual lens of space. Gulson and
Symes(34) noted, “Schools and universities, like other cultural institutions, are
important sites in the constitution of the modern city, though the significance
of these sites is often downplayed and has not received the same attention
as shopping malls and theme parks”, The remark also applies to shadow
education, which has become a learning space that not only brings
challenges and opportunities, but also changes power dynamics in
education and the wider society.
Tables 2 and 3 show the emergence and evolution of shadow education
in four phases following what can be called its prehistory in the 1980s.
During the period of prehistory, free-of-charge tutoring was commonly
given by teachers, college students and others. Some fee-charging shadow
education did emerge during the 1980s, but only during the early
1990s did it really become visible. Discourse analysis of literature from
the time shows positive attitudes towards school provision of remedial
tutoring and Gaokao preparation as part of school curriculum and teacher
responsibility. Paid tutoring for entrance examinations germinated at
this time. For example, Huang(35) documented the paid Gaokao tutoring
organized by a public institution since 1984. During this period, families
49
50
Ta b l e 2
The emergence and evolution of shadow education

Stage 1: Emergence and first Stage 3: Deepening institutionalization,

Prehistory boom of shadow education Stage 2: Institutionalization and specialization and capitalization Stage 4: Massification, digitalization
(1978–1989) market (1990–1999) second boom (2000–2010) (2011–2018) and integration (since 2018)

Features Public school Rapid expansion of post-
tutoring primary education led to first
supplemented boom. Market takes shape
by emerging with dominant involvement
scattered of teachers and schools.
home tutoring Emergence of urban tutoring
institutions run or managed
by public institutions, teachers
and/or private actors; tutoring
responds to growing family
Second boom accompanying
second round of mainstream
expansion, facilitated by
expanded higher education and
policies to reduce study burden
and to ban tutoring in schools.
Tutoring becomes institutionalized
in diversifying modes, content
and pedagogical approaches.
Expansion of companies hiring
Still institutionalization stage, but with
Age of massification, digitalization
specialization, standardization andand integration facilitated by
deepening division of labour. Tutoring
technology; fierce national regulation
companies become attractive in capital
results in more regulated market,
market, embarking on application excludes teachers and small centres,
of technology to expand and attractbut indirectly drives development of
investment. online tutoring that is more difficult
More regulations to prohibit schools
to regulate. More capital investment
and in-service teachers from providing
in online education, and more online
tutoring, which further delegitimized
companies go public; online tutoring
EN V I RON M ENT & URB A N I Z A T I ON

demand for examination teachers, college students and schools and teachers as tutoring expands to lower-tier cities and
preparation and access to key later their own professional suppliers. even rural areas. Online tutoring
schools. tutors. Companies and schools dramatically boosted by COVID-19,
collaborate to “return” study load accustoming millions of students to
cut in schools. digital learning.
Major Schools and Schools and teachers, with Tier 1–2 cities: tutoring National market leaders expand across Official statistics estimate half
providers teachers growing participation of companies, teachers and schools,
country to lower-tier cities. More online million tutoring companies, almost
college students and tutoring and college students; tutoring companies. equivalent to total number of
companies in urban areas. Tier 3–4 cities: teachers and Tier 1–2 cities: tutoring companies, schools – and many unregistered
schools, and local centres; teachers (increasingly pushed out of tutorial enterprises still operating.
Rural and remote: teachers andmarket but still popular, especially in Teachers still active, especially
schools. Grades 9 and 12), and college students; in low-tier cities and rural areas,
Tier 3–4 cities: teachers, local but more hidden due to official
institutions and big players. prohibition.
Dominant Strong state Strong state actors in private State actors remain strong, but Following impact from previous Power struggles among capital,
powers actors; few sector contribute to market gradually give power to market. decades, market not only takes hold, technology and state. State tries
non-state growth. First boom heavily Many tutoring institutions employ but also challenges and damages to regulate tutoring with strong
actors. Tutoring depends on schools and teachers as part-time tutors, state provision. From conspiracy administrative machinery, yet market
organized by teachers, supplemented by and partner with teachers/ to competition: tension between continues to grow, taking advantage
schools as college students and emerging schools for clients. Major players schooling and tutoring companies of COVID-19 crisis. Big tutoring
legitimate tutoring institutions. develop professional tutoring creates negative effects and challenges companies and tech companies
part of school and management teams to gain legitimacy of schooling. Expanding providing tutoring are dominant
curriculum. independence. Market gains capital and technology; teachers losing and aggressive market players.
force in largely unregulated competition at primary level in Tier 1–2 Tutoring by teachers and schools
environment, absorbing resources cities, and threatened in Tier 3–4 cities delegitimized by 2018 national policy
from both public and private by online and dual-teacher tutors. Local to prohibit (again) their involvement
sectors. companies threatened by strong and in tutoring.
resourceful outsiders.
Vol 33 No 1 April 2021
 A C H A N G I N G EN V I RON M ENT O F URB A N EDU C A T I ON

Ta b l e 3
Evolving school, family and shadow education spaces
Stage 1: Emergence Stage 2: Stage 3: Deepening
and first boom of Institutionalization institutionalization, Stage 4: Massification,
Prehistory shadow education and second boom specialization and digitalization and
(1978–1989) market (1990–1999) (2000–2010) capitalization (2011–2018) integration (since 2018)

School space Free or low-fee Paid or free tutoring

Government bans More policies to reduce Partnerships with
tutoring organized for examination tutoring by schools to study load. Tutoring tutoring companies
by schools for: preparation, reduce study burden further reduced on banned and thus become
(i) intensive Olympiad training,
on students. Tutoring school premises, but hidden. However, as
preparation and enrichment orreduced on school some schools outsource schooling moves online
for high-stakes remedial support.premises; some such demand to tutoring during COVID-19 crisis,
examinations, Olympiad trainingschools move tutoring companies. Some weak free support from
and (ii) remedial reduced by 1995 to company premises. schools also outsource companies enters
and enrichment government ban, to
Many self-employed online tutoring and schooling in digital space.
classes for alleviate study load.
tutors (including teacher training to leading
low and high teacher–tutors) move companies.
achievers. to tutoring institutions.
Family space Scattered face-to-Expansion of Further expansion of Face-to-face home Online tutoring becomes
face, in homes of fee-charging face-to-face home tutoring gradually only form available
tutors or students;
home tutoring by tutoring, but more loses market to online during COVID-19 crisis.
mainly free but teachers, college institutionalized as tutoring, made attractive Integration of three
some fee-charging.students and other more companies send and interactive by learning spaces (schools,
private actors. tutors to families. technological innovations. families and shadow
Growing urban demand education) in students’
for online tutoring. homes.
Shadow Scattered In addition to Tutoring institutions Online tutoring spreads Challenging market
education provision of fee- paid tutoring in proliferate, mostly rapidly. Traditional mode environment; small
space charging tutoring schools and homes, operating in supplemented by dual- tutorial centres
in schools and expanding in commercial and tutor and online; division squeezed by state
homes; very tutorial centres and residential premises. of labour and policy and by aggressive
limited shadow other spaces. Many teachers join specialization in capital. Tutoring by
education in companies as part-time curriculum and instruction; teachers more hidden.
other spaces such tutors. Online tutoring tutoring content deepens Large players and tech
as institutions germinating in virtual and covers wider companies compete
for community space. spectrum of curricula during COVID-19 crisis.
education. delivered in diverse Commercial war for
modes; fierce competition online users continues in
but still opportunities. post-crisis era.
Learning Shadow education Shadow education Institutionalization Previous trend continues; Previous trend continues;
spaces mainly in school space expanded of shadow power of capital COVID-19 increases
and power and family spaces, beyond schools education increases and development of power of technology and
dynamics subject to schools and families, independence of professional tutors capital in digital learning;
and parents. Much constituting third tutoring institutions displace teachers online tutoring greatly
overlap of shadow learning space. from schools and and schools; major expands shadow space;
education and Teachers and teachers, and thus companies develop state tries to claim
other two spaces. school leaders expands shadow independent curriculum, power over education
utilize/manipulate education space no longer follow schools; by regulating market,
power in schools outside schools and market takes control but digitization imposes
to secure their families. Hidden of shadow education barriers; market too
shadow education curriculum and human curricula and pedagogy entrenched to be under
activities. resources transfer from that challenge official direct and tight control,
state to market. curriculum; boundaries but some aspects of
blurred by public–private regulation succeed and
partnerships. facilitate self-regulation.
Relationships
among family,
school and
shadow
education (SE)
spaces

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EN V I RON M ENT & URB A N I Z A T I ON Vol 33 No 1 April 2021

and schools were the main spaces where education, including tutoring,
took place.
Stage 1 of the emergence during the 1990s was stimulated by the rapid
expansion of post-primary schooling (Figure 1), and of opportunities for
families able and willing to compete. As the tutoring market took shape,
shadow education grew beyond school and family spaces to form the
third learning space. Teachers operating independently or in conjunction
with their schools were the main suppliers of private tutoring, but were
accompanied by informal suppliers including college students and
by emerging tutorial institutions. The tutoring served both low and
high achievers, and school-organized tutoring particularly focused on
preparation for the Zhongkao and Gaokao examinations. Other tutoring for
elite students focused on the demanding Olympiad contests, particularly
in mathematics, science and English.
A national policy(36) prohibiting school tutoring for Olympiads 36. China, State Education
was among the forces pushing teachers away from tutoring on school Commission (1995), An Urgent
Notice on Closing Olympiads
premises to less visible sites, and providing a market for other providers. Schools (Classes) in All Subjects
The tutoring boom in urban areas was fuelled by competition for access and at All Levels [in Chinese],
to key schools and elite classes within ordinary schools. Hua’s(37) report State Education Commission,
Beijing.
on study load provided an example from Tianjin. Among 472 students
sampled from five primary schools, 67 per cent received tutoring; and 37. Hua, Ming (1995),
“Investigating the study load
among them, 92 per cent did so for entrance to lower-secondary key on primary and secondary
schools. students from multiple
Many early tutoring companies had ties to public institutions. For perspectives” [in Chinese],
People’s Education Vol 4, pages
instance, New Oriental, the second-largest tutoring company in China, 16–21, page 17.
was founded by a Peking University teacher in 1993 as a training
institution for overseas studies. Following diversification at the turn of the
21st century, tutoring became the company’s major business. Similarly,
Only Education, a work-study centre at Shanghai Jiaotong University
established in 1984, was transformed into an education and technology
company in 1992. It embarked on English tutoring, and tutoring in
multiple subjects has been the company’s major business since 1998.
Only Education is one of the oldest and largest tutoring companies in
China. Several local and regional leaders still active today were founded
by schoolteachers or managers during this period.
Stage 2, comprising roughly the decade from 2000, was stimulated
by further expansion of mainstream education, especially at the upper-
secondary and post-secondary levels (Figure 1), and the sector attracted
growing interest from venture investors. At the same time, burden-
reduction policies prohibited schools from accelerating instruction on the
national curriculum and from providing tutoring.(38) These regulations 38. China, Ministry of Education
(2000), Urgent Notice on
shortened official school hours, and increased anxieties among some Reducing the Heavy Study
parents who then arranged tutoring to compensate.(39) The reduced school Burden on Students [in
hours also released teachers’ time for tutoring, and strengthened collusion Chinese], Beijing; also China,
Ministry of Education (2009),
between schools and tutoring companies. For instance, in 2005, another Guidance on Regulating and
national policy prohibiting schools from training students for Olympiads Managing Operations of
(indicating that such tutoring had resurfaced a decade after the 1995 ban) Primary and Secondary Schools
created opportunities for tutoring companies to “take over” demand for [in Chinese], Beijing.

such tutoring. To maintain their performance, some schools collaborated 39. Zhang, Wei (2013),
Private Supplementary
by moving tutoring classes from their schools to partner companies, or Tutoring Received by Grade 9
by sending students to companies with strong reputations for Olympiad Students in Chongqing, China:
tutoring. In 2008, a document on professional ethics stated that teachers Determinants of Demand, and
Policy Implications, PhD thesis,
“should reject paid tutoring with consciousness, and should not gain personal University of Hong Kong.
52

40. China, Ministry of Education
(2008), Rules of Professional
Ethics of Teachers in Primary
and Secondary Schools [in
Chinese], Beijing, item 5.
41. China, Ministry of Education
(2015), Rules on Absolute
Prohibition of Primary and
Secondary Schools and
In-service Teachers from
Providing Private Tutoring [in
Chinese], Beijing.
A C H A N G I N G EN V I RON M ENT O F URB A N EDU C A T I ON
profit from their positions as teacher”,.(40) This was in response to teachers
working as tutors and recommending students to other teachers and to
tutoring companies.
During Stage 2 many tutoring institutions obtained textbooks,
teaching materials, homework assignments and examination papers from
the mainstream schools with help from tutees and teachers. In addition
to teachers, they employed students from elite universities, drawing on
these universities’ prestige to brand their services. By the end of Stage
2, major players had built independent teams for teaching, research and
management. As more teachers worked for tutoring companies, and more
schools ran or collaborated with companies, personnel migrated to the
third space to provide tutoring outside school premises. In this process,
the shadow education space grew further beyond the school and family
spaces. An example of institutionalized tutoring is Xueersi (meaning
“learning and thinking”, in 2013 renamed TAL), the largest tutoring
company in contemporary China. Xueersi was founded in response to
growing demand for mathematics tutoring in Beijing, especially training
for Olympiads. It started as a small tutoring centre run by a postgraduate
student of Peking University who employed students from elite
universities to provide the tutoring. After seven years of development, in
2010 the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange, with
647 full-time tutors in 109 learning centres and 87 service centres in
Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Wuhan.
Stage 3 saw further expansion of tutoring institutions accompanied
by standardization, specialization and capitalization, during which the
market not only took hold of shadow education but also caused more
repercussions for schooling. Within the industry, the division of labour
deepened. Professional tutors were supported by specialists in content
development, assessment, customer service, marketing, branding and
education technology. Different categories of tutors emerged, including
leading tutors, assistant tutors and tutor researchers. This division of labour
was accompanied by diversifying curricula and modes of tutoring. Online
tutors were trained differently from tutors in traditional classrooms, and
tutors leading mass classes had different skills and expertise from one-
to-one tutors. In the dual-tutor mode, a popular strategy since the mid-
2010s for market expansion in Tier 3 and 4 cities, lead tutors concentrated
on teaching while assistant tutors facilitated classroom interactions and
provided face-to-face feedback. Companies also specialized in learning
content and target clienteles. Curricula in tutoring went beyond intensive
examination preparation to capture diverse learning needs, and followed
such international trends as an emphasis on STEAM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, Art and Mathematics). Rapid development of education
technology made online tutoring more attractive, but traditional tutoring
also continued to expand. Shadow education became a hot target in
the capital market. After the listing of Xueersi on the New York Stock
Exchange, more companies followed suit in New York, Shanghai and
Hong Kong.
Turning to the learning spaces, a 2015 government document
prohibiting schools and in-service teachers from providing tutoring(41)
further delegitimized schools and teachers as tutoring suppliers. These
regulations increased uncertainties and anxieties among parents, pushed
some schools and teachers out of the tutoring market, released more time
from schools for tutoring companies, and created demand in tutoring
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EN V I RON M ENT & URB A N I Z A T I ON Vol 33 No 1 April 2021

companies for what had been cut from the schools. Tutoring therefore
expanded further, with more self-reliance than dependence on schooling
resources. Some schools outsourced activities to tutoring companies,
particularly for examination preparation, Olympiad training and student
admission.(42) Some weak schools also outsourced online tutoring and 42. Zhang, Wei and Mark Bray
teacher training. (2017), “Micro-neoliberalism
in China: public-private
Alongside training of professional tutors, major companies also
interactions at the confluence
developed independent curricula, some of which created challenges for of mainstream and shadow
schools. When most students in school received tutoring, their teachers education”, Journal of
had to adjust their pace to fit the tutoring curriculum. Government efforts Education Policy Vol 32, No 1,
pages 63–81.
to equalize schooling were offset by better-off families using tutoring
to maintain their children’s competitive edge.(43) Some teachers felt 43. Zhang, Wei and Mark
threatened by their students’ preference for the pedagogy and curricula of Bray (2018), “Equalising
schooling, unequalising private
the tutoring companies. supplementary tutoring: access
Stage 4 commenced in 2018 with new and fierce national regulations. and tracking through shadow
An initial statement jointly issued by four branches of the national education in Shanghai, China”,
Oxford Review of Education Vol
government(44) was followed a month later by a Ministry of Education notice
44, No 2, pages 221–238.
to accelerate regulation of tutoring enterprises.(45) A third major document
44. China, People’s Republic
was issued in 2018 by the General Office of the State Council (GOSC) of (2018), Notice Issued by
with detailed instructions.(46) These regulations, accompanied by powerful the General Offices of Four
business interests in the context of continued demand, contributed Ministries Including Ministry
of Education on a Special
to massification and institutionalization of tutoring. The pressures for Campaign to Rectify Out-of-
innovation and the rewards for success led to further development of school Training Institutions in
modes of delivery through educational technology (EduTech), including Order to Reduce Extracurricular
Study Burden on Primary
blended learning. Teachers were displaced from their previous tutoring
and Secondary Students [in
roles, and small tutorial centres faced increasing pressures. Chinese], Ministry of Education,
During Stage 4, both national policy and COVID-19, which hit in Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry
2020, pushed tutoring further into online space. A study by the Key of Human Resources and
Social Security, and State
Laboratory of Big Data Mining and Knowledge Management(47) showed Administration for Industry and
that the value of the kindergarten to Grade 12 online education consumer Commerce, Beijing.
market grew from RMB 8.5 billion (US$ 1.2 billion) in 2013 to RMB 88 45. China, Ministry of Education
billion (US$ 12.8 billion) in 2020. The corresponding market penetration (2018), Notice Issued by the
General Office of the Ministry
rate increased from 6.8 per cent in 2013 to 15 per cent of all students
of Education on Progress
in 2019, and jumped dramatically to 85 per cent in early 2020 with the of the Special Campaign to
COVID-19 crisis. Additionally, the study indicated growth of online Rectify Tutoring Institutions [in
tutoring in Tier 3 and 4 cities, even though 42 per cent and 35 per cent of Chinese], Beijing.
online consumers were in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities respectively. 46. China, GOSC (2018),
Opinions of the General
During the COVID-19 crisis, modes of online tutoring for mass Office of the State Council on
production at relatively low prices were offered widely by companies Regulating the Development of
competing for consumers. Accessibility and affordability increased, Private Tutoring Institutions [in
Chinese], General Office of the
facilitating massification of shadow education. Tutors and tutees were
State Council, Beijing.
exposed online to close monitoring through evaluation and assessment
47. Key Laboratory of Big
tools, with little attention to privacy protection. These all reflected the Data Mining and Knowledge
expanded power of capital and technology in shadow education. As Management (2020), China’s
such, over the decades of development, shadow education has become K-12 Online Education Market
and Consumer Behavior Report
a space in which the market, state and family compete for power over [in Chinese], page 17, accessed
teaching and learning.(48) Some parents use it to control their children’s 12 July 2020 at https://bdk.
education in ways precluded for schools; and some schools use it to secure ucas.ac.cn/index.php/kycg/
fxbg/2793-k12.
performance in the face of government reforms to equalize schooling.
Venture investors use shadow education to accumulate capital, while 48. See reference 9, Zhang
(2020).
technology companies manipulate it for both capital and data.(49) Shadow
49. See reference 13, Zhang
education has expanded as schooling and family education have been and Bray (2020).
increasingly externalized to tutoring providers. It has become a significant
54

50. See reference 43, Zhang
and Bray (2018).
51. See reference 39; also
Peng, Pai (2008), An Empirical
Research on Supplementary
Tutoring of Compulsory
Education Students: Based
on the Survey and Analysis
in Hongshan District, Wuhan
[in Chinese], master’s thesis,
Huazhong Normal University,
Wuhan; and Shen, Hua
(2008), “An investigation on
factors influencing private
supplementary tutoring at the
level of compulsory education”
[in Chinese], Economics of
Education Research Vol 6, No 3,
pages 1–10.
52. See reference 39.
53. Zhang, Wei and Mark Bray
(2015), “Shadow education
in Chongqing, China: factors
underlying demand and policy
implications”, KEDI Journal of
Educational Policy Vol 12, No 1,
pages 83–106.
54. See reference 50.
55. See reference 30.
56. See e.g. reference 51, Shen
(2008); also Lei, Wanpeng
(2005), “Expenditure on private
tutoring for upper secondary
students: determinants
and policy implications” [in
Chinese], Education and
Economy Vol 1, pages 39–42;
and Tsang, Mun Chiu, Xiaohao
Ding and Hua Shen (2010),
“Urban-rural disparities in
A C H A N G I N G EN V I RON M ENT O F URB A N EDU C A T I ON
third space in which different actors strategize for educational, social,
economic and emotional purposes.
V. Spatial Disparities In Shadow Education
The analysis above conceptualizes shadow education as an educational
space. This section adds to the spatial analysis with elaborations on
its unequal geographic and sociological distribution. Eastern China
generally has more and better schooling than Central and Western China,
as do first-tier cities compared with lower-tier cities, more developed city
districts compared with less developed districts, and urban areas as a whole
compared with rural areas. The geography of shadow education mimics
these patterns. Locations with demand for more and better schooling also
demand more and better shadow education, chiefly because families have
higher expectations and compete more vigorously.
Elaborating on disparities within cities, a Shanghai study showed that
after controlling for socioeconomic status, family size, residential status
and gender, students in the suburbs were less likely to receive tutoring
than counterparts in the urban core districts, where schooling is stronger
as well as highly competitive.(50) Disparities are also evident among
schools around the country, with students in elite schools more likely to
receive private tutoring than counterparts in ordinary schools.(51)
Likewise, in rural areas, the areas closer to cities generally have
more and better access to tutoring. For instance, research in Chongqing
Municipality(52) showed that on the urban–rural fringe, where many
tutoring institutions were located, access to tutoring was easier and
participation rates were higher than in poor counties and remote villages.
And while almost half of the sampled students attending Chongqing
county schools had an urban hukou, they were less likely to be tutored
than students attending urban schools.(53) In Shanghai Municipality,
Chongming County is the only rural area. Many parents from this
county have migrated to the city for work, some bringing their children
and others leaving them with family members. Tutoring in this region is
mostly provided by schools and teachers (some fee-charging and some free
of charge). But some better-off families send their children to the urban
districts for tutoring by companies during weekends and long vacations.(54)
The Shanghai research also showed the importance of hukou
residential status. Students who had migrated from other provinces
with their parents were less likely to receive tutoring than students with
Shanghai hukou. Because hukou regulations made most of them ineligible
to sit the Zhongkao examination in Shanghai, few migrant children could
proceed to academic upper-secondary schooling in the city and therefore
had less incentive to compete. Students who did aspire to the academic
track commonly returned to their places of origin before Grade 9 to sit
the Zhongkao there.
Reflecting the concept of space as a social construction, disparities are
also evident among different social groups in access to shadow education.
Children without siblings are more likely to receive tutoring, which reflects
the intensive focus on these children by parents and grandparents,(55) as
are children in families of higher socioeconomic status.(56) The demand
for tutoring is particularly salient among insecure and ambitious middle-
class families.(57)
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EN V I RON M ENT & URB A N I Z A T I ON Vol 33 No 1 April 2021

A temporal dimension adds to an understanding of the dynamics private tutoring of lower

secondary students” [in
(Tables 2 and 3). In contemporary China, shadow education in Tier 1
Chinese], Education and
and strong Tier 2 cities is in Stage 3 (deepening institutionalization, Economy Vol 2, pages 7–11.
specialization and capitalization), moving to Stage 4 (massification, 57. See reference 9, Zhang
digitalization and integration). In weak Tier 2 and in Tier 3 and 4 cities, (2020).
it is moving from Stage 2 (institutionalization and second boom) towards
Stage 3. Rapid changes brought by technology are lifting poor rural areas
that are still largely in Stage 1 (emergence and first boom) or even in
prehistory, but cities still have much larger “third learning spaces” than
towns, villages and remote rural areas.
Location also matters for other dimensions of supply. Tutoring
institutions can more easily employ high-quality teaching and
management staff in cities with abundant school and university resources.
Major cities and developed districts in the cities also attract more capable
college graduates.(58) Until the 2018 prohibition on employment of 58. IResearch (2020), 2019
serving schoolteachers in tutorial institutions, the companies that hired Report on China’s K12 to B
Tutoring Industry [in Chinese],
teachers benefitted most in neighbourhoods with high-quality schools. accessed 19 November
To secure competent tutors and managers, the largest and oldest tutoring 2020 at https://www.sohu.
companies built their initial sites in developed districts of major cities com/a/395524369_483389
that also had elite universities. Further, for easy access they located
their tutorial centres near schools, in city/district centres, and/or near
bus and metro stations. The national market leaders, New Oriental and
Xueersi, were both founded in Haidian District, Beijing, where the best
schools and universities were located. From there, they expanded to
other districts in Beijing and to other cities. Even small tutoring centres
that provide tailor-made services to students from specific schools or for
admission to specific institutions are commonly located close to those
schools and institutions. Thus private tutoring shadows schooling not
only in curricula but also in space.
Nevertheless, as Table 3 shows, shadow education has seen
significant shifts as it expanded, with face-to-face tutoring diminishing
on school premises and in homes but picking up again with online
tutoring, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. With the expansion of
the industrial model for professional tutoring, standardized curricula
increasingly compensated for disparities in tutors’ prior qualifications.
The expansion of online tutoring and the application of education
technologies also reduced the dependence on schoolteachers and part-
time college students. Many small and medium-sized traditional tutoring
companies in lower-tier cities and in peri-urban and rural areas still face
challenges in attracting and retaining competent tutors and managers,
but online tutoring companies are less constrained.
The enactment of the major 2018 national policy,(59) which 59. See reference 46.
unfolded in different ways around the country, has also had far-reaching
implications for the geography of shadow education and urbanization
processes.(60) The rationale for prohibiting serving teachers from offering 60. Zhang, Wei (2019),
private supplementary instruction was to avoid conflicts of interest and “Regulating private tutoring in
China: uniform policies, diverse
possible corruption. Teachers might have been tempted to put more effort responses”, ECNU Review of
into their private lessons than their mainstream duties, or to deliberately Education Vol 2, No 1, pages
neglect their regular duties so that pupils would have to attend 25–43.
supplementary lessons. However, these issues did not arise universally,
and the measure in effect removed a supply of tutors for rural students,
thus enlarging rural/urban gaps.

56

61. See reference 58.
62. TAL Research Institute
(2020), Research Report on the
Quality of Employment in the
Tutoring Industry [in Chinese],
TAL, Beijing.
63. Qingxiyuanshan Foundation
(2020), “About” [in Chinese],
accessed 16 July 2020 at http://
www.qxys.org.cn.
64. See reference 18, page 68.
A C H A N G I N G EN V I RON M ENT O F URB A N EDU C A T I ON
The 2018 legislation also changed the landscape for entrepreneurs
who operated tutorial centres in parallel to schools. The regulations on
premises, personnel qualifications, contractual procedures, etc. forced
some centres to close. Other tutorial companies continued to blossom
– in some cases boosted by the closure of smaller enterprises. The most
ambitious of these larger companies sought to expand their markets
further from the Tier 1 cities to Tiers 2, 3 and 4. These actions made
services more available, but also retained rural/urban gaps. Nevertheless,
technology did reduce some gaps with downloadable modules, in some
cases supplemented by live tutors operating at a distance. Other tutoring
used the dual-teacher mode in which an urban-based tutor or an artificial
intelligence (AI) tutor ran classes with the support of teaching assistants
in the rural periphery.
Data on balances in cities of different development levels have been
provided by IResearch,(61) which noted for instance that in 2019, 44
per cent of New Oriental’s 1,159 campuses were in Tier 1 and 2 cities. This
company attracted many graduates from elite universities and created
star tutors who, assisted by the internet and other technology, could be
stationed in the buzz areas of large cities but also serve families elsewhere.
Similarly, TAL has become the second-largest employer of graduates
from the prestigious Peking University, only behind the multinational
technology company Huawei. In 2020, 88 per cent of TAL tutors held
undergraduate degrees and 11 per cent held postgraduate degrees.(62) The
dual-tutor mode increased access to popular tutors in places where these
tutors were unwilling to reside and work, including less developed areas
in large cities like Shanghai and, even more significantly, rural areas.
These developments show that shadow education has started to
liberate itself from the constraints of geography. Further, some large
companies reach out to disadvantaged regions and communities in the
name of corporate social responsibility.(63) This is not entirely disinterested,
because the activities assist with branding and marketing; but the effect
is to take shadow education further out of the shadows. These companies
create industrial chains to serve their clients through technology, division
of labour, and professional development. Within urban areas, some
tutoring companies exert their presence by constructing educational
compounds in collaboration with shops, eateries, bookstores, etc. These
companies no longer feel the need to open premises in existing shopping
centres, instead creating their own shopping centres that turn deserted
spaces into populated city hubs.
VI. Conclusions
This paper has shown ways in which urbanization and private
supplementary tutoring have shaped each other. Although an established
literature has focused on relationships between urbanization and
schooling, relationships with shadow education have received much less
attention not only in China but also internationally.
The Chinese case is especially noteworthy because of the pace of
change. Moreover, despite the dramatic speed of urbanization, from 17.9
per cent of the population in 1978 to 59.6 per cent in 2018, the process is
far from over. Kroeber(64) stated that China remained less urbanized than
virtually any other country of its income level, and added, “If one assumes,
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as many demographers do, that the urban share of the population will level
off at around three-quarters, China’s urbanization process is only about two-
thirds complete.” Urbanization may be expected to continue, and shadow
education will maintain its symbiotic relationship.
The paper has shown that shadow education has expanded
dramatically since the early 1990s. For reasons of both demand and
supply, the expansion has been much more evident in urban than rural
areas. Urban families have had higher incomes, smaller families, and
more competitive dispositions; and urban areas also host companies keen
to supply tutoring. The decades have brought significant shifts in the
nature of provision, largely replacing supplementary tutoring by teachers
with tutoring provided by companies. There has also been a shift in the
size of companies, with smaller localized operations displaced by larger
enterprises. The largest companies have expanded operations from Tier
1 cities to Tiers 2 and 3, and in some cases Tier 4, and have harnessed
technologies to liberate themselves from personnel constraints.
Much differentiation, of course, is also evident within cities. China
has made remarkable strides in the expansion of formal education, but
this has not led to the widely anticipated degree of equalization. One
constraint has been the hukou registration system, which discriminates
against children of migrants. Even for those with the relevant registration,
the system remains highly stratified. When the government sought to
equalize schools and reduce the study burden on students, privileged
families turned to shadow education to maintain social inequalities and
compensate for the reduced burden in schools. While tutors and their
employers claim they are supporting students and families, they are also
maintaining social stratification and the associated stresses.
The paper has also highlighted ways in which spaces for families,
schools and shadow education have shifted. Table 3 showed the shadow
education space growing considerably faster than family and school
education spaces. It also showed shifts in the nature of shadow education
as it became institutionalized, specialized and capitalized. These processes
convey urbanizing values. One, transmitted by technologies, was about
competitive edges, privileges and shortcuts that could be purchased, and
notions that chances of success are greater for those who pay for them.
A second was that online mass tutoring replicated and exaggerated some
of the features for which schooling had been criticized, namely a factory
model in which one teacher feeds the same content to thousands of
students. The model was dressed up as equal opportunity for all when
in fact it was only available to those who could pay for it. Also, shadow
education has been coercive – imposed by the market on families that
had to invest in it to secure the same starting line as their peers. This
contrasted with the fee-free and compulsory education guaranteed by the
state on the grounds of human rights.
When set alongside patterns in other countries, such as the three on
which specific statistics were presented in Section II, the Chinese case is also
instructive from the perspective of regulation. Longstanding efforts by the
Korean authorities to regulate the shadow education sector have succeeded
in shaping its form but not in dampening demand.(65) This seems also to 65. Kim, Young Chun (2016),
apply in China. The Egyptian authorities have tried to prohibit teachers Shadow Education and the
Curriculum and Culture of
from supplying private tutoring, but only with limited success; and their Schooling in South Korea,
approach to tutorial companies has largely been laissez faire.(66) In this Palgrave Macmillan, New York,
respect, patterns differ from those in China. Laissez faire approaches have 211 pages; also Lee, Chong

58
 A C H A N G I N G EN V I RON M ENT O F URB A N EDU C A T I ON

Jae, Heesook Lee and Hyo-Min
Jang (2010), “The history of
policy responses to shadow
education in South Korea:
implications for the next cycle
of policy responses”, Asia
Pacific Education Review Vol
11, No 1, pages 97–108.
66. Sieverding, Maia, Caroline
Krafft and Asmaa Elbadawy
(2019), “An exploration of the
drivers of private tutoring in
Egypt”, Comparative Education
Review Vol 63, No 4, pages
562–590.
67. See reference 10.
also been evident in England and Wales, where the tutoring phenomenon
has mushroomed in recent years.(67) By contrast, the Chinese government
has strong administrative machinery and, at least following the launch of
the 2018 regulations, considerable determination.
The question then becomes how regulations are implemented, with
intended and unintended consequences. The regulations, by design or
default, have favoured larger enterprises. They have also imposed some
uniformity both in contractual arrangements with clients and in modes
of operation and curricula. One effect has been to ensure that the shadow
education sector remains a shadow in the sense of adherence to the
content and structures of schooling. The regulations have also legitimized
the shadow education sector, making it even more visible than it was
before. What commenced as privatization by default in a bottom-up way
has become a huge industry, with the largest players quoted on mainland
Chinese, Hong Kong and US stock exchanges. Just as contemporary
patterns of urbanization would have seemed inconceivable in 1978, so
would contemporary patterns of privatization and industrialization
through this third space in the education sector. Yet, as mentioned,
processes are still moving – and thus will remain an important domain
for continued monitoring, research and analysis.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Major Projects
Funding for Key Research Hubs of Shanghai Lideshuren Humanities and
Social Sciences Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
(Regulating Private Tutoring to Its Diversity), Shanghai Pujiang Talent
Program  (2019PJC037), and the Program for Professor of Special
Appointment (Eastern Scholar) (TP2019017).

ORCID iD

Wei Zhang https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2686-5793

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