Restrictions on For-Profit Schools May Widen Gaps in China's Education System

Editor's note:

China's top legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC), banned for-profit schools from offering classes from the first through ninth grades earlier this week, pushing them to switch to a nonprofit status or shutdown. Lawmakers say the amendment to a 2008 education act will stop for-profit educators from "infringing on an area that should be the government's responsibility" and minimize inequality in China's education system. In China, all children are entitled to nine years of free, compulsory education, which includes six years of elementary school and three years of middle school.