Beijing: Beijing's crackdown on the English subject could be part of China's bid to get away from the language amid a trade war with the US.

The Shanghai municipal government education bureau announced in early August that primary school students should only have to sit final exams in Chinese and math, while other subjects will be subject to teacher evaluation with no test score, Radio Free Asia reported.

The changes in Shanghai come after Xu Jin, a leader of China's parliamentary advisory body said that "only around one in 10 students actually needed the English they learned."

Reports from 2017 also showed that Chinese parents spent nearly 164 billion yuan on helping their kids keep up with compulsory English classes.

The Chinese government has also announced a ban on private tutoring in a bid to lighten the burden on children and parents but around 68 per cent of the tutoring industry in Shanghai was given over to English teaching, according to figures from March 2021, and this could be a major reason behind banning the private tutoring, Radio Free Asia reported.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai municipal government had issued a directive on August 20 about banning schools or parents from buying textbooks that haven't been officially approved, Shanghai-based parent surnamed Li said.