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 press conference Thursday in Beijing.

The Law of Promoting Private Educational Institutions went into effect September 1 last year, and a new regulation designed to support private schools will be implements from April 1.

"Both the law and regulation are designed to guide private schools along a legal and healthy track so that they can provide qualified educational resources," said Zhou.

China now has more than 70,000 private schools ranging from preschool to higher education and attended by over 14 million students, reports the Ministry of Education.

State-funded public schools traditionally dominate.

It wasn't until 1997, when the State Council promulgated an administrative regulation outlining schools' operational standards, that 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 to employment, social welfare and competition for academic awards as those who study in public schools, she explained.

Regional governments should offer preferential treatment to private schools that want to use land to build schools, according to the regulation.

In short, neither the public nor the government should discriminate against private schools, said Shi.

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

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

(China Daily March 26, 2004)