Private schools get legal protection
By Cui Ning (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-03-26 00:51

Encouraging the development of private schools will be necessary to meet the country's growing educational demands, Minister of Education Zhou Ji said at a news conference Thursday in Beijing.

The Law of Promoting Non-State Educational Institutions, which supports the development of private schools, went into effect September 1 last year.

What's more, a new regulation approved by the State Council that takes the law further will kick off on April 1.

"Both the law and regulation are designed to better guide private schools towards a legal and healthy track so as to provide people with qualified educational resources," said Zhou.

In China, State-funded public schools traditionally dominate.

China has more than 70,000 private schools ranging from preliminary to higher education attended by over 14 million students, according to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Education.

Private schools started appearing after public ones.

Until 1997, the State Council promulgated an administrative regulation outlining how schools should be run and private schools began to operate legally.

Now, private and public schools should be put on an equal footing, said Shi Min, an official of the State Council Legislative Affairs Office.

For example, students who study in private schools will enjoy the same rights, such as employment, social welfare and competition for academic awards as those who study in public schools, she explained.

Regional governments should give preferential policies to private schools that want to use land to build schools, the regulation says.

In short, private schools should not be discriminated against by the public and governmental institutions, said Shi.

However, any private school that runs counter to the law or regulation, or provide substandard education to people, will be suspended or even shut down, she said.

"The law and regulation are certainly helpful to protect the rights of private schools..." said a woman teacher at the Beijing-based Huijia Private School, in a telephone interview with China Daily.

She didn't give more comments on the regulation and information about the school's recruitment or other school affairs.

Private schools have played an important role in offering more chances to students and help ease the pressure on crowded public schools, said Zhou.

Zhou said in the future, private schools are encouraged to fairly compete with public ones.

In addition, private schools are extremely helpful to children of migrant workers, because it is hard for them to enter public schools due to regional protectionism -- public schools are more open to local residents.

Although no exact figure indicating how many children of migrant workers attend private schools, Vice-Minister of Education Zhang Xinsheng said private schools specially run for children of migrant workers, will also be protected.

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