人大代表呼吁给予民办教育更多支持

Private school started developing quickly following the adoption of the Private Education Promotion Law in 2003, which granted equal legal status to privately funded and public education systems.

Gu Yeli, vice president of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and a member of the country's top advisor body, says developing private education in China is vital to the country's education system.

"Private education is a product of Chinese reform that positively promotes national education, because we lack enough educational resources to meet the increased demand, and government-backed schools can't satisfy all the needs in the short term. So private education plays a very important role in making up the deficiency."

Overall education and training expenditures in the country will grow at an estimated compound annual growth rate of at least 20 percent from 2008 to 2013. According to the Ministry of Education, at the end of 2010, there were more than 120,000 private institutions, accounting for 22 percent nationwide, with 34,000,000 students in private schools.

But many remain misinformed about private schools. They believe such schools are solely for-profit institutions. Gu says the misconception has led to more controls and less support for private schools in policy-making.

Current educational policies do little to attract top teachers to private schools. Those who work in independent institutions are not eligible for the same benefits, such as insurance, as teachers who work in state-run organizations.

Zhang Jieting, another political advisor and private education investor, agrees there is a gap in government subsidies between public schools and private ones, which makes fair competition impossible.

"I think what we need most is a fair environment for competition, because the current problem is we don't stand at the same starting line. For example, the investment for public middle schools is much greater than it is for private ones. So we need fair competition. Of course, it requires a process."

Zhang suggests the government revamp its policy in a way that allows better support for private schools.

Gu also suggests that priority in reviving private schools be placed on freeing them from public institutions and allowing them more flexible policies concerning financing. He believes that despite the current problems that private schools experience, they will play a more prominent role in China's education system.

"With the development of society and more understanding from people, the development of private education is inevitable. If our government provides more support for it, I think private schools can keep pace with their public counterparts and even become the mainstream of Chinese education."

The Ministry of Education is mulling a support policy for private education. Qin He, president of Jilin Huaqiao Foreign Languages Institute, said she is confident about the future of private schools after reading the draft document issued for public comment.

"The impending outline has set the position of private education as having two important roles as a growth-point for the education cause and a vital force for educational reform. It will provide a wider platform for our development."

In his government report at the opening meeting of the annual session of the National People's Congress, Premier Wen Jiabao said government spending on education would account for 4 percent of the country's GDP this year. This means that education spending will reach a new high.

For CRI, I'm Li Ningjing.