The rise of private supplementary tutoring: Contemporary issues and international perspectives on shadow education in China

Shadow education, also known as private supplementary tutoring (PST), has spread widely all over the world (Manzon and Areepattamannil, 2014). Notably, China (Mainland and Hong Kong) has experienced massive shadow education growth in the past two decades (Zhang and Bray, 2016), where PST is often viewed as an effective way for young adults to achieve higher test scores such as the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) and the National College Entrance Examination (NCCE), commonly known as the Gaokao (Bray et al., 2015). While numerous scholars have called for new empirical research on shadow education (Trent, 2016), research on PST has often lagged behind the expansion and diversification of the phenomenon (Liu and Bray, 2016). Furthermore, little is known about whether such activity helps students succeed in the HKDSE and NCCE, and to what extent these activities prepare them for higher education participation after high school (Bray and Lykins, 2012). Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Brendan Bartram; individual chapters, the contributors.