Overview of the New Regulations for Private Schools

On January 18, 2017, the State Council officially promulgated the Several Opinions of the State Council on Encouraging Non-governmental Sectors to Run Schools and Promoting the Healthy Development of Non-governmental Education (Guo Fa [2016] No. 81) (the " Opinions ").  On the same day, the Ministry of Education published two regulations regarding private schools on its official website, namely the Notice of the Ministry of Education and other Four Departments on the Issuance of Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Private Schools Classification Registration (Jiao Fa [2016] No. 19) (the“Registration Rules”) and the Notice of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on the Issuance of Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Supervision and Management of For-Profit Private Schools (Jiao Fa [2016] No. 20) ( the “Management Rules”, which, together with the Opinions and the Registration Rules, are referred to as the “Regulations” ).  The Regulations mentioned above are regarded as key rules in the private education industry and supplement the Private Education Promotion Law of the PRC (revised in 2016)  (the “Promotion Law”), as amended on November 7, 2016.  The Regulations will help to promote private school classification administration reforms and facilitate the implementation of related preferential policies.  This article will provide a brief overview of the Regulations based upon relevant provisions of the Promotion Law.