China shut the door on the education business, so no private school can profit from enrolling children ages 6 to 15, the compulsory stage that runs from primary to secondary school.
Zhu Zhiwen, vice minister of Education, said it bluntly at a press conference: for-profit schools are simply not compatible with free education. And it is no small detail: in the country there are about 4,900 private lower secondary schools and 5,900 primary schools, part of a system that totals 22.6 million students enrolled outside public education.
The law does not affect preschool, upper secondary school, or university, where the education business is still allowed. But in the compulsory stage, the message is clear: you can keep educating, but you cannot charge extra for doing so.