Shenzhen Houde Academy, once hailed as the “number one private high school,” has collapsed, shattering the dreams of middle-class education and affecting over 800 middle-class families in Shenzhen. The academy has been ordered to pay 170 million yuan (RMB) in debt, and its legal representative has been restricted from high spending.
According to the Tianyancha App, Shenzhen Houde Academy was established in July 2016, with Tian Hua as the legal representative and an initial capital of 10 million yuan. Risk information shows that there are currently three persons subject to enforcement actions related to the academy, with a total amount exceeding 170 million yuan. Additionally, the academy and its legal representative Tian Hua have been restricted from high spending due to failing to fulfill payment obligations specified in enforcement notices within the designated period.
The academy had registered websites such as “www.hdacademy.cn” and “www.houde.edu.cn,” but both websites are currently inaccessible.
An article in the Sanlian Life Weekly on August 20th reported that over 800 families were affected by the closure of Houde Academy, most of which were middle-class families.
A student named Aoli enrolled in the liberal arts “Foundation Class” at Houde Academy in Shenzhen is currently in the latter part of her sophomore year. Since the end of June, after the college entrance examination, there have been people outside the school gate every few days shouting through megaphones, holding signs, or displaying red banners, all demanding repayment of debts. Sometimes after school, Aoli and her classmates would see these protesters as they walked across the street to the dormitory building.
She mentioned that she had gotten used to the “megaphone shouting” from outside the window. Despite efforts to focus on her studies in the classroom, some teachers also mentioned to students that since May, they hadn’t received their salaries at all. Aoli could hear the chants of “Houde Academy, repay our debts” from the classroom.
In the summer of 2022, Aoli applied to over a dozen public high schools before the high school entrance examination. However, she scored just over 500 points in the exam, and due to not having a household registration in Shenzhen, the admission scores for many public high schools were higher by ten to thirty points for local students. As a result, Aoli ended up at the private Houde Academy.
At that time, Houde Academy was considered a “star school” among private high schools. Founded in 2016, the academy had both the college entrance examination and overseas training systems, with a notable performance in the college entrance examination track. According to the academy’s promotion, from 2019 to 2021, the college entrance examination pass rate of Houde Academy students ranked first among all private high schools in the city for three consecutive years and was recognized by the Shenzhen Education Bureau as the “2020 Shenzhen City Excellent Private School.”
In early 2023, there was a period when the individual bathrooms in the dormitories lacked hot water, making it impossible for students to shower. Later, when hot water was provided, the temperature fluctuated greatly, being either very hot or cold. During the winter in Shenzhen, when temperatures dropped, some dormitories were prohibited from using air conditioning for a period, leaving students unable to sleep due to the cold. Aoli also heard that the turnover rate of teachers in some classes was particularly high, with three to four class homeroom teachers changing within a few months. By the end of the summer in 2023, at the beginning of the new semester, the school teachers strongly recommended parents to pay the remaining high school annual tuition fees in advance, offering discounts ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan. A significant number of parents paid the tuition fees for one semester or two years in advance, ranging from fifty thousand to over two hundred thousand yuan.
This year, rumors about the debt crisis and educational situation of Houde Academy became more widespread. In April, there were reports on social media that Houde Academy owed debts, with the largest investor, Huang Xiaoyu, and his company involved in enforcement actions totaling over 700 million yuan. On May 21st, the Shenzhen Education Bureau published the “2024 Shenzhen High School Stage School Enrollment Plan,” with Houde Academy missing from the list. A day later, Houde Academy issued several statements, claiming to have reached a settlement on the debt issue and denying that they did not receive enrollment quotas, stating that the school was waiting for a response from the education bureau, and urging people not to believe or spread rumors.
During this period, Houde Academy continued its recruitment efforts, even admitting students for remedial classes in June. However, on June 28th, a notice was posted on the door of Houde Academy, stating that the school’s factory land lessor, Shenzhen Bojin Huitong Industrial Co., Ltd., demanded over 10 million yuan in overdue rent from Houde Academy and requested the return of the leased premises. In the following days, representatives from the school store, cafeteria, and dormitory building also came to collect debts.
At the beginning of July, news emerged that Houde Academy would not be part of the first batch of new student admissions this year, indicating that they could only recruit students in the second batch of the new academic year, with lower scores and a smaller intake, possibly signaling the closure of the institution.
Parents only gathered together on July 3rd, with some visiting the school to inquire about the actual situation. However, they could not find anyone at the school; the principal had fled, and the offices were empty. During those days, when it was the final exam period for students in the first and second years of high school, parents were concerned that debt collectors might harm the children and immediately had them take a taxi home instead of staying at the school.
Like the parents, many teachers inside Houde Academy only found out about the imminent closure of the school in early July. One teacher mentioned that on July 4th, over a dozen officials from the education bureau stationed themselves at the school. The officials informed them that their boss had fled, the public security bureau was investigating, and they instructed the teachers to maintain order and help students complete their final exams without causing any trouble. Over a hundred teachers and over 800 students completed their respective duties and exams. On July 12th, the gates of Houde Academy were closed.
At the end of July, more than half a month after the closure of Houde Academy, rows of red plastic barriers surrounded the gates. The dormitory building on the opposite side was also quiet, with a notice from a company pasted outside the enclosure, stating that Houde Academy had seriously violated the lease agreement.
Earlier this year, the Longhua District Education Bureau in Shenzhen publicly released the audit report of Houde Academy for 2023, which indicated that the academy had an income of approximately 110 million yuan in 2023, with an annual net loss of 16.31 million yuan. The audit report did not raise any risk concerns about Houde Academy but recommended that the school obtain valid original receipts for expense reimbursement as much as possible. More than half a year later, this shaky kite fell to the ground, affecting over 800 first and second-year high school students and their parents the most.
In mid-July, after the confirmation of closure by Houde Academy, the Shenzhen Education Bureau’s solution was to transfer all first and second-year students and some teachers to a new private high school called “Zhonghui Senior High School.”
Many parents of first-year students were hesitant to send their children to Zhonghui and had numerous suspicions about the new school. They created various chat groups to discuss and investigate collectively. However, these chat groups were quickly shut down.
In the new chat groups, parents repeatedly voiced their concerns: first, not all Houde teachers were willing to go to Zhonghui, so if students had to adjust to new teachers after enrolling, what would happen? Second, how would they cope if Zhonghui increased its tuition fees in the future? Third, as this is a completely new school with no educational or management experience, how could they ensure that their children would not be delayed in their education? Finally, what is the nature of the property rights of Zhonghui’s site, and can it guarantee it won’t become another Houde? These questions remain unanswered to this day.