BEIJING, December 22 (TMTPOST) — Chinese after-school education and tutoring service giant TAL Education Group will end its public school subject business and start focusing on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education for students, the company’s CEO Zhang Bangxin announced at a company-wide staff meeting held online on Wednesday.

About 20,000 of the employees at TAL’s primary and middle school education business will leave for non-profit operation after one week.

Image Source: Visual China

“The double reduction policy caused TAL great pain. But it is still the coming-of-age present for TAL’s 18-year-old birthday,” Zhang said at the staff meeting, encouraging the employees to face difficulties with optimism.

TAL announced earlier on November 13 that the company will stop providing K9 (from kindergarten to grade 9) public school curriculum education service on December 31, 2021. The company will shift its focus from public school subjects that will “change students’ fate” to providing STEAM training that can help students “build skills that will prove beneficial for personal growth”.

TAL’s main customers will remain to be students aged between 2 years old and 18 years old after exiting from the public school curriculum tutoring sector, Zhang said. TAL will work to provide more comprehensive solutions for the customers, such as STEAM education and other learning services based on publication and digital content, Zhang concluded.

China launched its “double reduction” policy in July, cracking down on the country’s thriving private tutoring industry. The policy is expected to reduce students’ academic burden and increase education equality in the country.

The “double reduction” policy inevitably dealt a devastating blow to the private education sector in China as it requires companies that provide private tutoring services to go non-profit. Education businesses, including giants like TAL and New Oriental, have been laying off their staff and streamlining their business operations so as to survive the impact.

See also: New Oriental Said to Cut 40,000 Jobs and Shut Down Core Business after China's Tutoring Crackdown

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