Participants in the ongoing 28th session of the Ninth National
People's Congress (
NPC) Standing
Committee on Friday made a preliminary reading of a draft law on
the promotion of non-public schools, which refer to schools running
without government subsidies.
All individuals and social organizations -- except organizations of
State legislative, administrative, judicial, military and police
bodies -- are eligible to sponsor non-public schools, according to
the draft law.
It
states that these schools offer education services to the public.
It includes short-term professional training institutions that are
open to the public, saying these organizations make great
contributions to the training of laid-off workers and aid lifelong
learning.
But it makes no stipulations on Chinese and foreign educational
institutions as the State Council is working on related
regulations.
Legislator Zhang Guoxiang said the legislation should pay more
attention to non-public schools catering for the children of
migrant workers to ensure they enjoy equal education rights.
The draft law stipulates non-public schools enjoy the same
preferential policies in taxation, financial loans, land purchase
and renovations of buildings as public schools.
Teachers and students will also enjoy the same legal status, rights
and treatment as their counterparts in government-funded
schools.
Lawmaker Gu Jianfen said this was "a core issue" of the
legislation.
Teachers in non-public schools are often in disadvantageous
positions in such fields as getting professional posts, job
transfers, housing and insurance. Some school graduates are
reluctant to work for non-public schools, said legislator Liu
Bin.
But Liu said China, a country with a population of more than 1.3
billion, strongly needs non-governmental funding to help develop
its voluntary education sector.
He
added current limited educational resources, especially high
quality resources, hardly meet the needs of the public.
Statistics reveal China has around 60,000 non-public schools,
including 44,000 kindergartens, 4,300 primary schools, 7,316
ordinary high schools and 999 vocational high schools.
This only accounts for 4.1 percent of public schools of all kinds,
according to figures of the NPC Education, Science, Culture and
Public Health Committee.
The draft law allows the owners of non-public schools to make a
"reasonable profit," preventing them from reaping exorbitant
financial yields.
These schools will be given a high level of autonomy in asset
management, tuition, administration, course selection and student
evaluation, the draft law states.
The draft law is to ensure the interests of the non-public schools,
while at the same time, to regulate their operations.
(China
Daily June 29, 2002)