Recently, the Ministry of Education issued the “Warnings on School Charges during the Prevention and Control of Epidemic Situations by the Office of the Leading Group of the Ministry of Education’s Leading Group on the Treatment of Unauthorized Charging of Education”.
The full text is as follows:
In response to the recent issue of tuition fees (teaching fees) and accommodation fees for individual schools and kindergartens in the absence of classes, the Office of the Leading Group of the Ministry of Education in the treatment of unauthorized charging of education reminds the local education authorities to guide all types of schools and kindergartens to prevent epidemics School charge management during the control period.
1. Tuition fees (teaching fees) shall not be received in advance across the school year or semester. All localities should follow the unified deployment of the local people’s government on the prevention and control of epidemic situations to start classes and resume classes, and no tuition fees (teaching fees) shall be collected in advance of or before the start of classes.
2. The accommodation fee shall not be received in advance across the school year or semester, and the accommodation fee shall not be charged in advance without accommodation. For the accommodation fees that have been collected according to the academic year, the refund method should be reasonably determined according to the actual accommodation. The specific measures shall be formulated by the provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government).
3. All localities must conscientiously implement the “Notice on Doing a Good Job in Student Aid During the Prevention and Control of the COVID-19 Epidemic Situation” (Jiao Cai Si Han [2020] No. 30), fully implement all student financial aid policies, and reduce and exempt tuition and accommodation Fees, or the provision of temporary living subsidies, etc., to increase the financial assistance to students with financial difficulties and families affected by the epidemic.
4. Schools shall not use the name of epidemic prevention and control to set up additional charging items, expand the scope of charging, raise the charging standards, and charge in violation of regulations.
All provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) should further regulate and strengthen school charge management during epidemic prevention and control in accordance with the education charge management authority and localized management principles, and the local reality, and seriously investigate and deal with various arbitrary charges.

Ministry of Education manages education charges

Work Leading Group Office

April 10, 2020