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 press conference Thursday in
Beijing.
The Law of Promoting Private Educational Institutions went into
effect September 1 last year, and a new regulation designed to
support private schools will be implements from April 1.
"Both the law and regulation are designed to guide private
schools along a legal and healthy track so that they can provide
qualified educational resources," said Zhou.
China now has more than 70,000 private schools ranging from
preschool to higher education and attended by over 14 million
students, reports the Ministry of Education.
State-funded public schools traditionally dominate.
It wasn't until 1997, when the State Council promulgated an
administrative regulation outlining schools' operational standards,
that 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 to employment, social welfare and competition for
academic awards as those who study in public schools, she
explained.
Regional governments should offer preferential treatment to
private schools that want to use land to build schools, according
to the regulation.
In short, neither the public nor the government should
discriminate against private schools, said Shi.
However, any private school that runs counter to the law or
regulation, or that provides substandard education, may be
suspended or even shut down, she said.
Private schools have played an important role in providing more
chances to students and helping to ease the pressure on crowded
public schools, said Zhou.
(China Daily March 26, 2004)