China’s New Laws and Policies on Nongovernmental Education - Background, Characteristics, and Impact Analysis

Oct 15, 2026

The article analyzes China’s recent laws and policies governing nongovernmental education (private school education), tracing its revival after the 1978 reform and rapid growth into a major component of the education system. It contrasts China’s model—financed by private capital with organizers seeking economic returns—with overseas approaches, and explains the policy shift beginning around 2016 toward registration, support, and category-based regulation. Findings summarize new policy “characters,” highlighting public-interest orientation, leadership strengthening, negative-list management, preferential category-based support, and standardized operating practices.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Purpose

Design/Approach/Methods

Findings

Originality/Value

The evolution of China’s policies on nongovernmental education

China’s New Laws and Policies on Nongovernmental Education: Background, Characteristics, and Impact Analysis Shengzu Dong Shanghai Academy of Educational Sciences ECNU Review of Education 2020, Vol. 3(2) 346–356 ª The Author(s) 2020 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/2096531120918148](DOI: 10.1177/2096531120918148)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/2096531120918148)[journals.sagepub.com/home/roe](journals.sagepub.com/home/roe) Abstract Purpose: China has a long history of private school education. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, nongovernmental education (private school education) once disappeared from Chinese society until its revival following the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. With its development of more than four decades, nongovernmental education has become an important part of China’s educational system and is vigorously promoting the modernization progress of Chinese education. Design/Approach/Methods: Being different from the overseas private school education, which is mostly funded by donations, China’s nongovernmental education sector has operated on the basis of private capital investments and contributions, with the organizers (contributors) typically expecting economic returns. Marked by the introduction of regulations and policies for nongovernmental education around the year of 2016, China’s nongovernmental education sector officially entered a new era of registration, support, and regulation by category. Findings: The macroscopic policies of China’s nongovernmental education in new era present the following new characters: (I) Emphasizing education provision as a public interest and comprehensively strengthening private school leadership; (II) managing negative lists and broadening the means by which social forces participate in operating schools; (III) implementing preferential Corresponding author: Shengzu Dong, Shanghai Academy of Educational Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China. Email: [dongsz@vip.163.com](dongsz@vip.163.com) Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). policies for private schools through categories based on the principle of being fair but different; (IV) supporting the development of private schools with the goal of improving education quality;(V) standardizing private schools’ operating practices in order to promote healthy and orderly development. Originality/Value: The implementing of the new policies on nongovernmental education shall have significant impact on the development and reform of China’s nongovernmental education in the future: (1) The rapid development of nonprofit private schools due to government support; (2) for-profit private schools may face polarization in a fiercely competitive market environment; (3) heavy burden of categorizing and transferring existing stock of schools due to various historical and realistic constraints. Keywords China’s nongovernmental education, development history, policy trend, system change Date received: 7 May 2019; accepted: 17 March 2020 China has a long history of private school education. Incorporated into the state-owned or publicly run education system after the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), nongovernmental education disappeared from Chinese society until its revival following the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Cent

FAQs

What historical factors drove the revival of nongovernmental education in China?

Nongovernmental education disappeared after the founding of the PRC and revived following the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee in 1978, then developed further with market promotion and subsequent policies.

How does China’s nongovernmental education sector differ from the overseas model?

Overseas private school education is mostly funded by donations, while China’s nongovernmental education relies on private capital investments and contributions, with organizers typically expecting economic returns.

What are the key policy changes highlighted for the new era around 2016?

The article emphasizes public-interest orientation and strengthened leadership, negative-list management and broader participation mechanisms, preferential support through fair-but-different category policies, and standardization of operating practices to promote healthy, orderly development.

Oct 15, 2026

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