Compulsory Education Law of the People's Republic of China

Order of the President of the People’s Republic of China No.52

The Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, amended and adopted at the 22nd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China on June 29, 2006, is hereby promulgated and shall go into effect as of September 1, 2006.

Hu Jintao

President of the People’s Republic of China

June 29, 2006

Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China

(Adopted at the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People’s Congress on April 12, 1986, and amended at the 22nd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National people’s Congress on June 29, 2006)

Contents

Chapter I General Provisions

Chapter II Students

Chapter III Schools

Chapter IV Teachers

Chapter V Instruction and Teaching

Chapter VI Guarantee of Funds

Chapter VII Legal Responsibility

Chapter VIII Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I

General Provisions

Article 1 This Law is enacted in accordance with the Constitution and the Education Law, for the purpose of ensuring the right of school-age children and adolescents to compulsory education, guaranteeing provision of compulsory education and improving the qualities of the entire nation.

Article 2 The State implements a system of nine-year compulsory education.

Compulsory education means education which is uniformly provided by the State and which all the school-age children and adolescents must receive, and constitutes a public welfare undertaking which must be guaranteed by the State.

No tuition or miscellaneous fees shall be charged for provision of compulsory education.

The State establishes a mechanism for guaranteeing funds for compulsory education, to ensure implementation of the system of compulsory education.

Article 3 In compulsory education, the State policy on education shall be implemented by providing qualities-oriented education, to improve the quality of instruction, with a view to enabling school-age children and adolescents to achieve all-round development -- morally, intellectually and physically, so as to lay the foundation for bringing up well-educated and self-disciplined builders and successors of socialism imbued with lofty ideals and moral integrity.

Article 4 All school-age children and adolescents of the nationality of the People’s Republic of China shall, in accordance with law, enjoy the equal right, and fulfil the obligation, to receive compulsory education, regardless of sex, ethnic status or race, family financial conditions, religious belief, etc.

Article 5 People’s governments at various levels and their departments concerned shall perform the duties provided for in this Law, to ensure the right of school-age children and adolescents to compulsory education.

Parents of school-age children and adolescents or other statutory guardians shall, in accordance with law, guarantee that they start school at the specified age and receive and complete compulsory education.

Schools providing compulsory education according to law shall accomplish the tasks of instruction and teaching in compliance with the prescribed standards and guarantee the quality of instruction and teaching.

Public organizations and individuals shall create a good environment for school-age children and adolescents to receive compulsory education.

Article 6 The State Council and the local people’s governments at or above the county level shall rationally allocate educational resources, promote balanced development of compulsory education, help the schools started on weak foundations to improve the conditions for school running, and adopt measures to ensure that compulsory education is provided in rural areas and in areas inhabited by ethnic groups and that the school-age children and adolescents who are from families with financial difficulties or who are disabled receive compulsory education.

The State arranges for and encourages the economically developed areas to support the underdeveloped areas in providing compulsory education.

Article 7 In compulsory education, the system shall be practiced under which the State Council shall provide guidance, the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall make overall plans for its provision and the people’s governments at the county level shall play the main role in administration.

The administrative departments for education of the people’s governments at or above the county level shall be responsible specifically for the provision compulsory education, and the other administrative departments concerned of the said people’s governments shall be responsible for the provision of such education within the scope of their respective duties.

Article 8 The authorities of the people’s governments for educational supervision shall oversee the observation of laws and regulations in compulsory education, the quality of instruction and teaching and the balanced development of compulsory education, and announce their reports on supervision.

Article 9 All public organizations and individuals shall have the right to inform the State organs concerned of violations of this Law or lodge complaints against such violations with the said organs.

Where a major event in violation of this Law occurs, which impedes provision of compulsory education, thus exerting a great impact on the society, the leading person of the people’s government concerned or of the administrative department for education of the people’s government shall admit his mistake and resign.

Article 10 Public organizations and individuals that make outstanding contribution to provision of compulsory education shall be commended and rewarded by the people’s governments at different levels and the related departments in accordance with relevant regulations.

Chapter II Students

Article 11 When children have reached the age of six, their parents or other statutory guardians shall send them to school to receive and complete compulsory education. For children in areas where conditions do not exist for children to do so, the beginning of their schooling may be postponed to the age of seven.

If, on account of physical conditions, school-age children or adolescents need to postpone schooling or be suspended from school, their parents or other statutory guardians shall submit an application to such an effect for approval to the local people’s governments of the towns or townships or to the administrative departments for education of the people’s governments at the county level.

Article 12 School-age children and adolescents shall be exempted from the entrance examinations. The local people’s governments at various levels shall ensure that school-age children and adolescents enroll in school near the places where their residence is registered.

For school-age children and adolescents whose parents or other statutory guardians work or reside in places other than the places of their registered residence and who have to receive compulsory education in the places where their parents or other statutory guardians work or reside, the local people’s governments shall provide equal conditions for them to receive compulsory education. The specific measures in this regard shall be formulated by provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government.

The administrative department for education of the people’s government at the county level shall ensure that the children of servicemen within its administrative area receive compulsory education.

Article 13 The administrative departments for education of the people’s governments at or above the county level and the people’s governments of towns or townships shall arrange for and urge school-age children and adolescents to enroll in school, help solve their difficulties in receiving compulsory education, and adopt measures to prevent them from dropping out of school.

The residents’ committees and villagers’ committees shall assist the governments in successfully urging school-age children and adolescents to enroll in school.

Article 14 No employing units shall employ school-age children or adolescents who are expected to receive compulsory education.

The public organizations which have obtained approval according to relevant State regulations to recruit school-age children and adolescents for special training in literature and art or sports shall guarantee that the recruited school-age children or adolescents receive compulsory education; where a public organization intends to provide compulsory education itself, the matter shall be subject to approval by the administrative department for education of the people’s government at or above the county level.

Chapter III Schools

Article 15 The local people’s government at or above the county level shall, on the basis of such factors as the number of the school-age children and adolescents and the places of their residence within its administrative area and according to relevant State regulations, formulate and adjust the plans for the establishment of schools. Where schools need to be established in new residential communities, schools shall be established simultaneously with the development of the residential communities.

Article 16 Establishment of schools shall be in compliance with the standards for running schools prescribed by the State and meet the need of instruction and teaching, and shall meet the requirements for location and the standard for construction, as are prescribed by the State, in order to ensure safety of the students and the teaching and administrative staff.

Article 17 People’s governments at or above the county level may, in light of need, establish boarding schools to ensure that the school-age children and adolescents who live far from school receive compulsory education.

Article 18 The administrative department for education under the State Council and the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall, in light of need, establish schools (classes) in economically developed areas to enroll school-age children and adolescents of ethnic groups.

Article 19 People’s governments at or above the county level shall, in light of need, establish schools (classes) to provide special education that is appropriate for school-age children and adolescents who are blind, deaf-mute or mentally retarded to receive compulsory education. Such schools (classes) shall have places and facilities tailored to the special characteristics of the said children and adolescents for the benefit of their study, rehabilitation and daily life.

Regular schools shall admit to the classes corresponding to the levels of the disabled school-age children and adolescents who are capable of receiving regular education and provide them with aid in study and rehabilitation.

Article 20 The local people’s governments at or above the county level shall, in light of need, establish special schools to provide compulsory education to the school-age adolescents who are prone to such serious juvenile misbehaviors as are specified in the law on prevention of juvenile delinquency.

Article 21 The juvenile delinquents and the minors against whom compulsory educational measures are taken, who have not completed compulsory education, shall be provided with such education, and the funds needed in this respect shall be guaranteed by the people’s governments.

Article 22 People’s governments at or above the county level and the administrative departments for education shall promote balanced development among schools by narrowing the differences in the conditions for school running, and they shall not divide the schools into key and non-key schools. And the schools shall not divide the classes into key and non-key classes.

People’s governments at or above the county level and their administrative departments for education shall not change the nature of government-run schools in any name or in disguised form.

Article 23 People’s governments at or above the county level and their departments concerned shall, in accordance with law, maintain order in the areas surrounding the schools, protect the legitimate rights and interests of the students, teachers and schools and ensure security of the schools.

Article 24 Schools shall set up a sound security system and a mechanism in response to emergencies, conduct education among students in the importance of security, tighten administration, eliminate hidden hazards in time and prevent accidents.

People’s governments at or above the county level shall regularly inspect school buildings with respect to their safety and have them maintained or renovated in time, where necessary.

Schools shall not employ persons who have been deprived of their political rights for intentional crimes or persons who are not suited to compulsory education.

Article 25 Schools shall not collect any fees in violation of State regulations, nor shall they seek profits by selling commodities, services, etc. to students or doing so in disguised form.

Article 26 The system under which the principal assumes full responsibility shall be practiced in schools. Principals shall meet the requirements for the position as prescribed by the State. Principals shall be appointed according to law by the administrative departments for education of the people’s governments at the county level.

Article 27 Where a student violates the administrative rules of the school, the school shall criticize him by way of education, but shall not expel him.

Chapter IV Teachers

Article 28 Teachers shall enjoy the rights, and fulfill the duties, as provided for by law, and they shall play an exemplary role for other persons and be devoted to the educational undertaking of the people.

Teachers shall be respected by the entire society.

Article 29 Teachers shall treat students equally in instruction and teaching, pay attention to the individual differences of students, teach students in accordance with their aptitude, and promote their full development.

Teachers shall respect the personality of students, and they shall not discriminate against students, punish them physically or in disguised form, or humiliate them or strip them of their dignity, nor shall they infringe on the students’ legitimate rights and interests.

Article 30 Teachers shall obtain the qualifications for teachers as prescribed by the State.

The State shall establish a unified system for the posts of teachers engaged in compulsory education. Such posts of teachers are divided into primary, intermediary and senior posts.

Article 31 People’s governments at various levels shall guarantee the salaries, welfare benefits and social insurance premiums of the teachers and improve their working and living conditions, and improve the mechanism for guaranteeing the funds for the salaries of teachers in rural areas.

The average salary of teachers shall be not less than that of the local public servants.

Teachers engaged in special education shall enjoy subsidies for special posts. Teachers working in areas inhabited by ethnic groups or in outlying or poverty-stricken areas shall enjoy subsidies for working under tough conditions or in poverty-stricken areas.

Article 32 People’s governments at or above the county level shall put more efforts in the training of teachers and adopt measures for developing education among teachers.

The administrative departments for education of the people’s governments at the county level shall distribute the resources of teachers within their own administrative areas in a balanced manner, arrange training for principals and teachers and arrange for their transfer from school to school, and enhance the development of schools started on weak foundations.

Article 33 The State Council and the local people’s governments at various levels shall encourage and support teachers in urban schools and graduates of schools of higher education to go to rural areas and areas inhabited by ethnic groups to engage in compulsory education.

The State encourages graduates of schools of higher education to teach as volunteers in schools in rural areas and in areas inhabited by ethnic groups where teachers are lacking. The administrative departments for education of the people’s governments at the county level shall vouch for their qualifications as teachers according to law, and the length of time of their teaching shall be counted in their length of service.