How many students does a class consist of?

[Silverobama]

A friend of mine wanted me to work in her language school to teach some students. I wanted to know how many students consist of a class. Usually there are many classes and a teacher will be in charge of 6-8. If I want to know the exact number of one class. Is it natural to say:

How many students does a class consist of?

Please help me with a natural sentence.

 

[emsr2d2]

A friend of mine wanted me to work teach some students in her language school. to teach some students. I wanted to know how many students consist of will be in/are in a class. Usually there are many classes and a teacher will be in charge of 6-8 students. If I want to know the exact number of students in one class, is it natural to say the following?

How many students does a class consist of?

How many students are [there] in each class?
How many students would/will [there] be in my class/classes?
How many students would/will I be teaching?

I'm not sure what you mean by "Usually there are many classes".

 

[Silverobama]

I'm not sure what you mean by "Usually there are many classes".

Much appreciated. I wanted to say that "usually in a language school, there are many classes (of students) to teach". Since there are many students, they're divided into several smaller classes, so I said there are "many classes".

 

[emsr2d2]

Isn't that how all schools work? Every school has a lot of students (in total) and they're divided into classes. I'm sure there are no schools where all the kids are taught together!

 

[Silverobama]

Isn't that how all schools work? Every school has a lot of students (in total) and they're divided into classes. I'm sure there are no schools where all the kids are taught together!

Sorry for not having made myself clear. Here in Chongqing, after-school classes are banned. Extracurricular courses are not allowed. So, in my friend's language school, they can't have more than 6 students in one class because that would be breaking the law, while, yes, even though such activities are banned, the government is still winking at these violations.

And most importantly, in every public schools in China, one class has at least 40-50 students, almost ten times bigger than the ones in language schools.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm confused. What does the ban on extracurricular courses have to do with anything? Is your friend's language school not a standard school then? Is it technically operating outside the law? Why does the fact that there's a maximum of six students in each class make any difference?

 

[Silverobama]

I'm confused. What does the ban on extracurricular courses have to do with anything? Is your friend's language school not a standard school then? Is it technically operating outside the law? Why does the fact that there's a maximum of six students in each class make any difference?

The central government introduced a policy called the "Double Reduction" a couple of years ago. Its goal was to reduce the heavy homework load and the number of after-school academic classes for students across China. To give you some context, back in 2019, it was common for students to attend various extracurricular classes in subjects like math, Chinese, English, biology and so on, just to keep up with the intense competition for entrance exams. These exams, especially the college entrance exam (Gaokao), were long seen as the sole measure of a student's ability to get into university.

However, this intense pressure started to have serious consequences. More and more students began suffering from mental health issues, and tragically, some even committed suicide, largely due to the overwhelming amount of schoolwork and extracurricular commitments. That's why the Double Reduction policy was put in place. By banning these academic after-school classes, the hope was to reduce student stress.

Regarding my friend's language school, it's not a formal school but more like her own private studio. Because she has quite a few students—around 40 to 50—and wants to earn more, she needs to hire extra teachers to help manage them. The reason her operation exists in a bit of a legal grey area is because the Double Reduction policy essentially prohibits teaching academic subjects like English outside of the regular school system. So, technically, offering English classes in a private setting would be against the rules. However, she gets around this by branding her lessons as "illustrated book reading" activities. By framing it this way, she can continue teaching without drawing official scrutiny.

As for your last question about class size, the limit of six students per class isn't really about the law in her case. It's more about practicality and business. Since she has a fixed number of students (40 to 50), dividing them into smaller groups allows her to offer more class sessions, which in turn lets her earn more income. It's a way to manage her workload while maximizing her earnings.

 

[emsr2d2]

Thank you for explaining that so clearly. Has the legislation resulted in better mental health among students? Do fewer students now pass the college entrance exam?

 

[Silverobama]

Thank you for explaining that so clearly. Has the legislation resulted in better mental health among students? Do fewer students now pass the college entrance exam?

Those are really good questions. To be honest, the legislation hasn't worked as well as people hoped. While on paper after-school classes are banned, in reality, many students are still attending them—just in more hidden ways. Classes happen in private homes, small unmarked studios, or online, so the pressure hasn't really disappeared. It's just gone underground.

What I've noticed is that students who are already doing well academically don't usually need these extra classes. They can manage on their own. But students who struggle—and here we still unfairly label them "bad students" just based on scores—can't easily improve because their parents often don't know how to support them effectively. And that's the thing: parents play such a huge role, especially in managing their children's emotions and motivation. Without that support, extra classes alone don't help much.

Honestly, if anything, I think the mental health situation has gotten worse. I've struggled with anxiety myself, and every time I go to the hospital to see a psychiatrist, I see more and more young people in the waiting room. The numbers just keep growing. So no, I don't think the policy has reduced stress—it might have even made things more complicated.

As for the college entrance exam, the numbers speak for themselves. Every year, around 10 million students take the Gaokao, and that number is still climbing. It remains the only real path to a good university here. The system is brutally simple: you get a score out of 750, and that score decides everything. If you score above 700, you go to a top university. If you don't, your options shrink dramatically. So despite the policy, the pressure to perform hasn't gone away—it's just shifted forms.

 

[BobK]

How many students are [there] in each class?
How many students would/will [there] be in my class/classes?
How many students would/will I be teaching?

I'm not sure what you mean by "Usually there are many classes".

Or 'How many students do you have in a class?'
Or 'How many students do you have per class?'

 

[BobK]

...

the government is still winking at these violations...

I've never met the expression 'winking at', though it's obvious enough what it means. We say 'turning a blind eye to <thing-to-be-overlooked>'