Chinese Government Aims at Private School Takeovers

The Chinese government published a broad set of reforms in late July to transform for-profit education companies into nonprofits in an attempt to drive down competitiveness and educational expenses and reverse negative demographic trends (SOURCES). While the $100 billion private tutoring industry was the hardest hit victim of Beijing’s ire, it is not alone: increasing numbers of private school owners in China have been forced to hand their institutions over to the state in recent weeks, The Financial Times reported.

In the past three months, at least 13 for-profit primary and middle schools and one high school have been taken over by city authorities in China without compensation, according to The Financial Times. Beijing’s goal is to reduce the proportion of non-high-school students that attend for-profit schools from its current level above 10 percent to less than five percent. Government advisers claim that the private for-profit schooling sector has worsened inequality and made it harder for the Communist Party to control curriculum, The Financial Times continued.

“We must make sure public schools are the main compulsory education provider,” said a circular sent by the central government to lower-level authorities, according to The Financial Times.

China has nearly 190,000 private schools—more than 12,000 of which are primary and middle schools—educating one-fifth of all students. In the past two decades, the number of private primary schools grew tenfold, according to The Financial Times. Now, Beijing is attempting to reverse the liberalizing trend as a part of a broader campaign to rein in private educators and tech companies.