Across The Border | Markets divided on true effects of China’s new private school law
Uncertainty remains over how new rules will affect profit-making schools
China’s banning of “for-profit” private schools from enrolling students from primary to junior high school – the period covered by the country’s nine-year compulsory education programme – has received mixed views among analysts covering the sector.
Compulsory education is a nationwide free system, supported by funding from the central Chinese government.
Zhu Zhiwen, the vice minister of education, told a news conference on Monday that the system “is a public service, that must be provided by the government”, before adding that “profit-led private schools [effectively, those making a profit] are unsuitable to be part of this free education programme”.
The amended law on China’s private education system becomes effective on September 1 next year, but finer details on what effects the laws with have on profit-making schools remain largely unclear.
The move to create more rigid regulation of private education industry had largely been prompted by a rapid growth in the number of parents choosing to educate their children privately, as the population grows and incomes continue to rise.
Zhu stressed that private schools are still allowed to offer diversified, market-oriented paid educational services, but only if they comply with the law.