Education Reform

Powerless in the classroom: Why Taiwanese teachers are quitting

Schools are struggling to fill vacancies even as tens of thousands of qualified teachers remain outside the profession. Competition from the technology sector, mounting workplace pressures and fears of parental complaints are making teaching an increasingly difficult career to sell, notes Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Lai Oi Lai.

Lai Oi Lai

14 Sep 2026

Why some in China want English out of the classroom

A social media influencer’s call to strip English of its core-subject status in China’s national exams has highlighted a growing tension between nationalistic rhetoric, real-world pragmatism and the need for structural educational reform. Lianhe Zaobao’s China news correspondent Lim Zhan Ting finds out more.

Lim Zhan Ting

08 Sep 2026

[Big read] Inside China’s arts exam shadow market

Behind China’s arts entrance exams lies a costly world of influence and opaque deals, where talent alone rarely secures a place. Lianhe Zaobao journalist Qi Lu speaks to those who have lived through such experiences, and to academics who explain how the system works.

Qi Lu

23 Jun 2026

[Big read] Li Zexiang: The professor behind China’s drone boom and its future engineers

When DJI CEO Frank Wang’s undergraduate project failed, most would have turned him away. But Professor Li Zexiang, a leading innovator in China’s engineering education, recognised his potential and took him under his wing. Han Yong May, deputy editor-in-chief of SPH’s Chinese Media Group, sits down with Li as part of Lianhe Zaobao’s Future 365 interview series, to find out how his new engineering education system is building a new generation of engineers.

Han Yong May

17 Mar 2026

China’s ‘unprecedented’ plan to re-engineer its universities

Across China, the map of higher education is being redrawn. Old majors are disappearing, new ones are fast-tracked in strategic fields, and the pace of change is dizzying. But one pressing question remains: can this transformation truly serve the people it is meant to educate?

Caixin Global

14 Nov 2025

[Big read] Building trust is key: How a Singaporean doctor is changing Tsinghua University

Change and reform is never easy, more so when efforts are made by a foreigner. But that is exactly what Singaporean doctor Wong Tien Yin is doing in the medicine faculty at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He speaks to Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Sim Tze Wei about his work, building trust, the “Chinese” way of doing things, and how Singaporean youths are too “comfortable”.

Sim Tze Wei

02 Jan 2025

Majoring in football: Chinese universities revamp curricula for national goals

Lianhe Zaobao journalist Li Kang notes that Chinese universities are changing their programme offerings to align with the country’s development path, expanding majors in technology and sports while reducing humanities and business programmes.

Li Kang

05 Nov 2024

Chinese teachers’ mental health crisis

Recent measures in China have aimed to improve teacher support, workload management and mental health through government, school and community collaboration. However, underlying issues still persist.

Caixin Global

11 Oct 2024

Taiwanese university students are working, not studying

Japanese student in Taiwan Honda Mami observes that students in Taiwan seem to be busier with activities like making extra cash than with schoolwork.

Honda Mami

01 Jul 2024

Tuition lessons as cheap as 'cabbage', but Chinese parents and teachers are unhappy

The "double reduction" policy was launched last year to ease students' workload and pricing guidelines were introduced to prevent service providers from charging exorbitant prices. Not only has this caused many tutoring institutions to close down, but parents fear that they will now have nowhere to turn to for quality lessons that their child still needs for the rat race. Zaobao correspondent Chen Jing reports.

Chen Jing

28 Jan 2022

Investing in China: Why didn't anyone foresee the regulatory clampdown on the tutoring industry?

Since China's regulatory clampdowns in the after-school tutoring sector, Chinese education sector stocks have dropped and analysts have been left wondering how they were caught on the back foot. SMU academic Liang Hao and postgraduate student Wang Jialun discuss the predictive limitations of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) ratings and what the cycle of anxiety that pervades the tutoring industry means for investors.

Liang Hao, Wang Jialun

27 Dec 2021

Parents and teachers brace themselves for China's new school year under the 'double reduction' policy

Since September, primary and secondary schools across China have started to implement the "double reduction" policy. Among other measures, primary one and two students no longer have written homework or paper-based exams, while primary three to six students will have their written homework load significantly reduced. These measures are changing up the education ecosystem with students, parents, tutoring companies, teachers and schools all having to adjust. At the back of everyone's minds is the thought that the rules have changed but competition has not gone away. What are some of their concerns and how will they cope?

Zeng Shi

05 Oct 2021