Thousands of Private Schools Face Closure

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• The expansion of some education groups has led to more intense competition for students and teachers, causing problems in the ecology of the education system,” an expert said.

• Following the country's decision to curb ineffective schooling, provinces in China may have two to three years to make changes that will cut the proportion of students attending privately run schools to below 5%.

 Domino effect of closures 

Just a week before the beginning of the new school year, the front gates of some private elementary and middle schools in Dancheng County. Henan Province were packed with seventh graders and their parents. They were there to get their refund. “We have only two days to return the fees of nearly 200 students,” said one of the private school's principal.

Local authorities in Dancheng County had ordered 101 of 105 private elementary and middle schools to halt enrollment of new students this year. The schools were also ordered to refund new students who have already made a deposit or paid tuition fees. The move made around 15,000 first and seventh graders in the county turn back to enroll in public schools, while more than 500 private school teachers were on the brink of losing their jobs.

That domino effect is a product of the country's decision to curb ineffective schooling, dubbed the “involution of education” and emphasizing education as a “public good.” Zhoukou, the city that administers Dancheng, has required that the number of students attending private schools in the city be capped at 5% of the total by the end of next year. 

This didn't just affect Dancheng, as private schools in other counties and districts received similar notice. In fact, all provinces may have two to three years to make changes that will cut the proportion of students attending privately run schools to below 5%.

For instance, authorities in the provinces such as Hunan, Sichuan and Jiangsu have also laid out plans in response to the cap.

According to official statistics, there were 1,894 private primary schools in Henan Province last year with about 1.8 million students. For middle schools on the other hand, there were 941 private middle schools with 1.01 million students. Such numbers means that students in private schools in the province account for 18.8% of the total, which is higher than the national average of 10.5%, and far exceeding the upper limit of 5%.

However, the city of Zhuokou has the highest proportion of private schools for compulsory education in the province. There are 462 private schools in the city with 430,000 students, accounting for 34.2% of the total number of students. The plan is to reduce that number down to 40 private schools, and the number of students below 50,000.

▲Hunan plan to reduce students in private schools.

 Intense competition causing problems 

Through lecture series conducted by the Chinese Association for Non-Government Education in June, Wang Feng, chief expert of the National Center for Education Development Research.

Pointed out that the development of private education has changed from "supplement of the public sector" to "competiting with the public sector." “Private education is basically saturated, but some private education groups are still expanding massively and investing in the construction of new schools. The expansion of some education groups has led to more intense competition for students and teachers, causing problems in the ecology of the education system,” he said. 

Yang Dongping, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute and a member of the National Education Advisory Committee, noted that the private education sector is “becoming profit-oriented and lack innovation.” “In European countries, private schools usually account for 3% to 7%, and the proportion in Japan is 2%,” he said. “The government’s responsibility to provide basic public services should not be based solely on reducing the size of private school enrollment, but rather on the obligation of public education to provide sufficient, quality resources that meet the needs of the people,” he said.

Sources: 宝安外语协会

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