A Brief Account of the First Symposium on the Theory of Privately Run Schools

Abstract

The first symposium on the theory of privately run schools was held from September 23 to September 25, 1992, at Tianjin's Educational Science Institute. It was attended by more than fifty educational theorists and practitioners as well as representatives of a number of private schools from eleven areas of nine provinces and municipalities, namely, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shandong, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong. The State Education Commission's Division of Policy and Law, Division of Basic Education, and the Central Educational Science Institute also participated. Participants discussed the following topics: definition of the concepts of privately run schools and private schools in the course of private school development; the position and role of private schools in the socialist educational system; the social background and inherent basis for the development of private schools; private schools' internal management; how private schools can improve quality and establish their own char...