Chinese schools will be held liable for legal charges if they expel students or arrange improper courses, a senior legislator said.

According to the new Compulsory Education Law, which comes into effect on September 1, student in primary and middle schools who disobey the school regulations should be receive better instruction instead of being expelled, said Li Lianning, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, during an interactive interview with Internet users.

It is every student's basic right to receive compulsory education, even for those who might cause seriously disruptions in school, Li said, adding that those students should be transferred using proper procedures.

The government's shutdown of a controversial new school in Shanghai is in accordance with the law, Li said, when asked about the Mencius' Mother Hall, an ancient style school in Shanghai where students aged between four and 12, spend two thirds of their time reciting Confucius classics such as the Book of Changes and the Analects, as students used to do in ancient China.

Li said Mencius' Mother Hall violates the compulsory education law because its curriculum was not set up according to regulation.

Li said he encourages the promotion of Chinese traditional culture as the foundation of the nation in the country's compulsory education.

In addition to rote and reciting the Chinese classics, students at the Mencius' Mother Hall were also taught to recite Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and other sonnets while they were taught calculus by foreign teachers.

Mencius' mother lived during the warring states period (B.C.475-221), has famous for her educate methods she used on her child.

China's compulsory education promises free nine-year for Chinese students.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2006)