In a bid to tighten regulation and control the education sector, China’s parliament has banned private, for-profit schools that teach first- through ninth-graders.
Reuters reports that the move was also spurred by a bid to regulate the sector which is said to be fast growing but poorly regulated.
The parliament held that private for-profit schools cannot be established for grades where education is compulsory.
The ban by China is coming on the heels of a Nigerian school proprietor warning that no one should question or criticise the fees charged by his school.
Bishop David Oyedepo of Covenant University issued the stern warning at the weekend, threatening that violators would be struck with strange plague.
Meanwhile, the Chinese parliament came to the resolution at the end of a bi-monthly session, Leaders of the National People’s Congress adopted a revised law on private education that banned the schools.
The education sector has boomed in China in recent years – and become a magnet for investment – as the government relaxed restrictions to help meet growing demand and to increase options.
Regulation has been weak, however, leading to widely varying standards of quality.
Chinese children are entitled to nine years of free, compulsory education, from elementary to junior high school.
The document said it was acceptable to set up private, profit-generating schools at other grade levels, “but they cannot establish compulsory education (level), for-profit, private schools”.
The adoption of the revised law comes not long after the Shanghai government told principals from 21 international and bilingual schools in the city to offer China-specific subjects.
