New Oriental Education Shuts down K9 Education in Beijing Foreign Language School

A recent letter from Michael Yu, Chairman of New Oriental Education, went viral online. The letter indicated that the organization will no longer offer primary and secondary school tutoring at its Beijing Changping New Oriental Foreign Language School.

Finance of China News reported that the head of New Oriental could not confirm whether or not the Changping School would be completely shut down in the autumn, but he did clarify that the institution is currently not accepting enrollment for the autumn semester.

As per the open letter, the Beijing Changping New Oriental Foreign Language School will close its compulsory education program after the spring semester of 2022, i.e., the primary and secondary schools. Grade 9 students are eligible to continue their education in the upper school if they wish. The school is committed to providing resources and assistance to help students in grades 1-8 to continue their studies in other schools in Beijing, and will compensate all students in grades one through eight with a total amount of RMB 20,000 ($3,139) each.

In the open letter, Yu cited the reasons for closing the institution’s K9 education program. Chief among the reasons were the recent policies put into place. As required by the new state policies and regulations, New Oriental, as a listed company, and isn’t entitled to run compulsory education in its Changping School ot provide support for it.

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Secondly, past problems. New Oriental has never been able to to offer students a campus with complete school facilities and grounds. Over the past few years, Changping School has demolished several buildings, including the teachers’ dormitory, 400-meter track, outdoor playground and bleachers, as required by authorities. Such buildings are beyond reconstruction in the foreseeable future. In addition, it is not feasible to build a teaching complex, sports hall, science classrooms, and specialized classrooms for audio, physical education and the aesthetics necessary for a school due to the paperwork involved in the land zoning requirements.