The Silk Road Journal by Mahika Ming

In the late 1970s, Minister of Education Ranil Wickremasinghe presented a White Paper on Education. It was opposed by the communist & leftist parties & the government could not fully implement the proposals. Years later, those who opposed were seen implementing most of what Ranil proposed. There is a debate on the KDU act at present & it is good if those concerned can read & analyze the White Paper Ranil presented in parliament back then. That was the time Sri Lanka liberalized the economy & the Peoples Republic of China came to learn about the Greater Colombo Economic Commission. China has moved forward with its economy & the education system creating a super power. Sri Lanka seems to be moving forward with lot of opposition by those with communist outlooks. Average citizens & their children should read more about the impact of these oppositions may have on long term development of the country in general.

According to Chinese state information, China will be banning all tutoring institutions in core school subjects (listing & capital operation). General Office of the Communist Party (Central Committee) & General Office of the State Council have made new moves to control after school tutoring in a bid to reduce the stress on students. The new laws are expected to improve teaching quality with less homework & after school services to comprehensively regulate tutoring businesses in tutoring institutions. It is believed that the government is expecting to effectively reduce (students') burden from excessive homework & tutoring thus reducing family education expenses & the energy that education costs. Therefore, the government will no longer approve the establishment of private tuition classes to teach core school subjects & the existing institutions will be registered as nonprofit institutions.

Listed companies will not be allowed to invest in tutoring institutions teaching core school subjects & foreign capital will not be allowed to control / participate via mergers & acquisitions, entrusted operations, franchise chains & other methods. Accordingly the government has banned tutoring on weekends, summer, winter or statutory holidays & foreign curricula.  The new laws also forbid institutions from hiring foreign personnel for tutoring. Communist China at present has 24 listed education companies on different stock markets spread over mainland, Hong Kong & even in the USA. The latest capitalization was over 23 billion USD by last week. With this move leading tutoring service providers New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. & TAL Education Group experienced their USA shares dropping over 50% last week. China Online Education Group (AKA 51Talk) focusing on online English training with foreign teachers also dropped by over 40%. Sri Lankans should read more about world trends before taking to roads to protest. If the real needs are identified the energy spend on the roads can be focused positively.

The writer is an analyst with interests in the financial and sustainable development sectors with postgraduate exposure in the Far East (mahika.ming@gmail.com).