Xinhua published an article that was originally carried by the Chongqing Morning Newspaper reporting on the results of a recent online survey of attitudes toward educational training. Over one thousand people participated in the survey. The results showed that close to 28 percent of the survey participants had unpleasant experiences in dealing with training programs. Some of their unpleasant experiences included that their personal information was leaked; they received false information; they had a hard time withdrawing from the class and receiving a refund; and they felt that the results did not meet their expectations. Meanwhile close to 79 percent stated that the most annoying part about the training classes was that they were overcharged. Sixty-one percent felt that the English training market should be the first one to be regulated.
According to the article, in 2012, the size of China’s market for educational training was 960 billion yuan (USD$156 billion). It included programs such as pre-school, PhD, foreign languages, musical instruments, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and public servant test preparation. English language training accounted for 15 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) of the total market. Over 50,000 agencies in the market provide this service.
Source: Xinhua, August 24, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2014-08/24/c_126909732.htm