Recently, the Ministry of Education and other eight departments issued the “Notice on Regulating the Establishment or Participation in the Establishment of Private Compulsory Education Schools.”
The notice states that applications for private-run schools will no longer be approved and the sponsors of existing private schools are not allowed to withdraw sponsorship as these schools are converted to public schools. The conversion process from privately managed to state managed schools has already begun at several schools.
A meeting to prepare for this conversion has already taken place at Huaiyang No.1 Senior High School in Henan Province. This meeting was held in the conference room on the fourth floor of the People’s Government of Huaiyang District, Zhoukou City. After much discussion with the Huaiyang No.1 High School Board of Directors, the school principal Mr Wang Yesheng decided that the assets of the school will be handed over to the government as a donation for the good of Chinese society.
It has also been reported that the Jiaxiang Foreign Language School in Tianfu New District of Sichuan Meishan was due to open in September 1 for its first batch of students. However, the school has been informed that it is required to convert to a public school before that.
On June 22, 2021, the Hunan Provincial Department of Education issued a notice on regulating private education, requesting that the proportion of private junior high and primary school students in compulsory education be reduced to less than 5%, potentially affecting approximately 364,000 individuals. Furthermore, applications for new private schools providing primary and secondary education will no longer be approved.
In Shanghai, the largest city in China, new regulations are implement to “standardize curriculum teaching”. Schools are required to reduce the students’ burden of schoolwork and strengthen education management. In order to achieve that, schools are not allowed to conduct general examinations for all subjects. English language is excluded from primary schools.