AUTHORITIES in Shenzhen have announced guidance fees for after-school curriculum-based classes in the compulsory nine-year education system, Shenzhen Evening News reported.

According to a circular jointly issued by the municipal development and reform commission and the municipal education bureau, the guidance fees were established to strengthen the supervision of fees charged by off-campus tutoring agencies and to reduce families’ education expenses. The fee standards, which will be implemented beginning Feb. 14, will also apply to primary and junior middle schools in the Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone.

As per the circular, the benchmark fees for classes with fewer than 10 students will be charged 70 yuan (US$10.98) per student per lesson; while the standard prices for classes with 11 to 20 students, 21 to 30 students and over 31 students are 50 yuan, 40 yuan and 35 yuan, respectively.

The prices charged by tutoring institutions must be capped at no more than 10 percent over the benchmark and the standard duration for every after-school academic lesson is set at 45 minutes. Fees for lessons that go beyond 45 minutes can be set accordingly.

The government-guided prices apply to classes on ethics and the rule of law, as well as classes on Chinese, history, mathematics, foreign languages (English, Japanese and Russian), physics, chemistry and biology.

Off-campus tutoring agencies should refer to the reference prices when pricing after-school academic training programs for high school students, according to the News report.  (Wang Jingli)