The image shows a representation of Yingshang Experimental School. (Screenshot from the internet)
October 26, 2024 - While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims to support the private economy, it has intensified its control over private enterprises. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Education, the total number of private schools in China has continued to decline, with over 20,000 schools closing in four years.
On October 25, The Paper cited the 2023 National Education Development Statistical Bulletin, reporting that China has a total of 167,200 private schools, a year-on-year decrease of 11,000, accounting for 33.54% of all schools nationwide. The number of enrolled students in private schools is 49.3953 million, a reduction of 3.4319 million compared to the previous year.
The report indicates that the decline is mainly due to the reduction in private kindergartens, with a total of 149,500, down by 11,013 year-on-year. Additionally, there are 10,100 private primary and secondary schools (grades 1 to 9), a year-on-year decrease of 425 schools.
Since 2020, the total number of private schools nationwide has declined for four consecutive years, with over 20,000 schools closing in total.
In recent years, the CCP has limited the scale of private schools, with local authorities halting approvals for new private compulsory education schools and restricting the proportion of students in private compulsory schools to under 5%. Legislation has also been introduced to strengthen the Party’s control over education.
On April 7, 2021, the State Council released a revised version of the Implementation Regulations of the Private Education Promotion Law, which went into effect on September 1 of the same year. The regulations emphasize “the Party’s leadership” separately, with Article 63 specifically penalizing actions that “violate the state’s educational guidelines, deviate from the socialist orientation of school operation, or fail to ensure the school’s Party organization fulfills its responsibilities.” The regulations also stipulate that “the decision-making body of private schools must include a Party organization leader, and the supervisory body must include representatives from grassroots Party organizations. The school charter should outline the process for Party organization leaders to participate in decision-making and oversight.”
Additionally, the regulations impose requirements on investors, internet technology, textbooks, and teachers. For example, teachers must undergo political and ideological training, foreign textbooks must comply with national regulations, and foreign-invested enterprises and organizations controlled by foreign nationals are prohibited from establishing private compulsory education schools in China.
Private schools in China have long faced suppression, with some even subject to forced demolition. For example, in 2018, over 40 private kindergartens and primary schools in Huaiyang and Luyi Counties, Zhoukou City, Henan Province, were forcibly demolished.
On August 11, 2021, the Financial Times reported that within just three months, local governments across China had taken over at least 13 profit-making primary and junior high schools, as well as one high school, without offering compensation. The owners of these schools, who were forced to hand them over to the government, expressed that they had “no choice.” The $100 billion private education industry in China has become the most visible victim of the CCP’s push to nationalize profit-driven education.
The report added that the CCP is uneasy about the rise of the private education industry, seeing it as a threat to Party control over education.
In July 2021, eight central ministries, including the Ministry of Education, issued a document requiring that “private schools wholly organized by public schools or in collaboration with local governments should be converted to public schools.” Authorities also halted the approval of new “public-private partnership” schools. In practice, however, even before this directive was issued, various regions had already announced the conversion of private schools to public, with state media reports rarely mentioning specific compensation policies for these private schools. State media claimed that some schools even applied to “donate themselves entirely to the government.”
Voice of America previously cited analysts who believe that the CCP is deeply concerned about private enterprises and private schools that operate beyond its control. The crackdown on private schools is part of the CCP’s broader plan to strengthen social control.
Reports also show that the recent wave of closures among private kindergartens may be linked to the declining birthrate in mainland China.
Editor: Zheng Haoyu
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