Encouraging the development of private schools will be necessary to meet the country's growing educational demands, Minister of Education Zhou Ji said at a news conference yesterday in Beijing.

The Law of Promoting Non-State Educational Institutions, which supports the development of private schools, went into effect September 1 last year.

What's more, a new regulation approved by the State Council that takes the law further will kick off on April 1.

"Both the law and regulation are designed to better guide private schools towards a legal and healthy track so as to provide people with qualified educational resources," said Zhou.

In China, State-funded public schools traditionally dominate.

China has more than 70,000 private schools ranging from preliminary to higher education attended by over 14 million students, according to the latest statistics of the Ministry of Education.

Private schools started much later than public ones. In 1997, the State Council promulgated an administrative regulation outlining how schools should be run and private schools began to operate legally.

Now, private and public schools should be put on an equal footing, said Shi Min, an official of the State Council Legislative Affairs Office.

For example, students who study in private schools will enjoy the same rights, such as employment, social welfare and competition for academic awards as those who study in public schools, she explained.

Regional governments should give preferential policies to private schools that want to use land to build schools, the regulation says.

In short, private schools should not be discriminated against by the public and governmental institutions, said Shi.

However, any private school that runs counter to the law or regulation, or provide substandard education to people, will be suspended or even shut down, she said.

Private schools have played an important role in offering more chances to students and help ease the pressure on crowded public schools, said Zhou.

(China Daily March 26, 2004)