Private schools surnamed Party starts with children? Communist Party strengthens control over private education

China’s State Council on Friday (May 14) introduced a new regulation governing private education in an effort to strengthen the Communist Party’s role in China’s social management. Observers say the move is a start of Beijing’s efforts to overhaul and tighten controls on private capital in science and technology, education and other fields.

The first article of this revised version of the Regulations on the Implementation of the Law on the Promotion of Private Education (the “Regulations”), as it is called, states that private schools should adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The specific way to implement the leadership of the CPC is that the grassroots organizations of the CPC in the school shall participate in and supervise the major decisions of the school; the composition of the decision-making bodies of the school shall include the heads of the CPC organizations, and the relevant supervisory bodies shall also include representatives of the grassroots organizations of the Party.

The regulations also prohibit any social organizations and individuals from controlling private schools that implement compulsory education and non-profit preschool education through mergers and acquisitions, agreements and other means, and strengthen the supervision of schools run by social organizations with foreign parties as the actual controllers.

The regulations on the issue of high fees for private schools in general also make clear provisions: private schools should adhere to the public welfare of education, private schools and their organizers shall not charge students, parents of students in the name of sponsorship fees or disguised fees associated with enrollment.

This regulation will take effect from September 1 this year.

International media reports have cited analysts as saying that the current drive to overhaul private schools has just begun as part of a larger plan by the Communist Party to tighten social control. It is unclear what measures will continue to be introduced as a result of this overhaul, and which businesses and sectors will be affected. There are already signs that this uncertainty is being transmitted to the stock market through the social media, causing stocks in the education sector to fall sharply.