Photo/Shetuwang

July 26 (NBD) –Chinese educational services provider RYB Education Inc (NYSE: RYB) has been mired in the swirl of public criticism due to child sexual abuse scandal.

According to a file issued on July 23, the local procuratorate in Qingdao, Shandong province has approved the arrest of a foreign teacher who was suspected of molesting a young girl of a RYB-owned kindergarten in January this year.

Impacted by this, stock of RYB tumbled by 3.15 percent at most on the day, closing at 6.28 U.S. dollars per share.

According to RYB's announcement, the foreign teacher comes from Colombia and holds a valid work visa. On January 25, the suspect sneaked into a class while the teacher on duty went to the toilet and put his hands into the girl's quilt for about one minute. He was detained three days later after the girl's parents and the kindergarten reported the case to the police.

A parent, whose child is a student of the kindergarten, told NBD that she is very angry and she had no idea of the scandal until she saw the media coverage. According to her, the kindergarten started to enroll students from the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014 and raise tuitions each year.

The head of the Qingdao-based kindergarten and teacher on duty of that day have been fired due to malpractice in supervision, said the announcement. To reassure parents, the kindergarten in April gave them the access to monitor the classrooms in real time. 

Earlier this month, seven foreign teachers from Education First, a transnational educational behemoth built in Sweden, were reported to be arrested for taking drugs.

As China's English training market continues to heat up, more and more foreigners came to the country. A report released by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs indicated in 2017, China had 400,000 foreign employees in the educational sector, but over 200,000 of them were unqualified.

Zhang Yi, Chief Analyst at iiMedia Research, told NBD that the loose regulation from authorities, high cost of hiring qualified foreign teachers and soaring market demand have pushed English-training educational institutions to recruit unqualified foreign teachers, which leads to the frequent occurrence of above-mentioned scandals.

In Zhang's view, to regulate the market, authorities should build a reporting system for consumers as well as a severe punishment mechanism.

Industry insider Lynn suggested when choosing educational institutions, parents should pay more attention to teachers' education backgrounds and experience, rather than their complexion.

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn