学而思F1-行业分析(18)

教育行业研究

Accidents or injuries suffered by our students or other people on our premises may adversely affect our reputation, subject us to liability and cause us to incur substantial costs.

Even though we carry certain liability insurance for our students and their parents, in the event of accidents or injuries or other harm to students or other people on our premises, including those caused by or otherwise arising from the actions of our employees or contractors on our premises, our facilities may be perceived to be unsafe, which may discourage prospective students from attending our classes. We could also face claims alleging that we were negligent, provided inadequate supervision to our employees or contractors and therefore should be held jointly liable for harm caused by them or are otherwise liable for injuries suffered by our students or other people on our premises. For instance, in 2009, a student was injured while attending our classes in a learning center in Beijing and claimed that we were negligent and thus liable for the injury. Although that incident was resolved without any material damages to our reputation or business, there may be similar incidents in the future. A liability claim against us or any of our teachers or independent contractors could adversely affect our reputation, enrollment and revenues. Even if unsuccessful, such a claim could create unfavorable publicity, cause us to incur substantial expenses and divert the time and attention of our management.

Failure to adequately and promptly respond to changes in examination systems, admission standards and technologies in China could render our courses and services less attractive to students. Under China's education system, school admissions rely heavily on examination results. College and high school entrance examinations in most cases are mandatory for graduating seniors in high schools and middle schools in order to gain admission to colleges and high schools, respectively, and therefore, a student's performance in those examinations is critical to his or her education career and future employment prospects. Although examinations are not required for entering middle schools, many key middle schools administer their own assessment tests to disqualify prospective students. It is therefore common for students to take after-school tutoring classes to improve test performance, and the success of our business to a large extent depends on the continued use of assessment tests by schools and colleges in their admissions. However, such heavy emphasis on examination scores may decline or fall out of favor with educational institutions or education authorities in China. For example, education authorities in Yunnan Province stopped administering provincial-level middle school entrance examinations in 2010. Instead, high schools in Yunnan will start to admit students based on a combination of middle school examination results that have replaced raw scores with letter grades and comprehensive evaluations of students' aptitude and performance by their middle schools. Yunnan Province also prohibits subject competitions in primary and middle schools. Although we do not offer after-school tutoring services in the Yunnan Province, nor do we expect to do so in the near future, it is possible that the local governments in the areas where we have operations may adopt similar measures. Furthermore, approximately 80 universities in China have been allowed to recruit generally no more than 5% of their students through independently administered examinations and admission procedures in recent years. Candidates for admission to those universities are still required to take college entrance examinations and meet certain threshold requirements for minimum scores, but their college entrance exam scores are no longer the sole determining factor in the admission processes of those universities. If we fail to adjust our services to respond to any such material changes, our business may be materially and adversely affected. In addition, admission and

assessment tests in China constantly undergo changes and development in terms of subject and skill focus, question type, examination format and the manner in which tests are administered. We therefore must continually update and improve our course materials and our teaching methods. A failure to track and respond to any such changes in a timely and cost-effective manner could make our courses and services less attractive to students, which may materially and adversely affect our reputation and ability to continue to attract students and in turn have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our new courses and services may compete with our existing offerings.

We are constantly developing new courses and services to meet changes in student demands, testing materials, admission standards, market trends and technologies. While some of the courses and services that

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