China has put into force a law giving private schools equal status with state-owned schools in what the Economic Daily called a marker of the great changes that have taken place in the educational system in the country.

The promotion law on non-state educational sectors was put into effect Monday at a forum on the development of private educational sector held in the Great Hall of the People, the newspaper reported Tuesday.

According to the law, non-state educational sectors can enjoy national and other preferential treatment in running schools.

The law also regulates both the government's and investors' activities to safeguard the legal rights and interests of the schools, students and the teaching and administrative staff.

Like the state-owned sectors, the private sectors shoulder high responsibilities for senior middle schools, vocational schools, and colleges to train qualified personnel.

To date, there are more than 1,300 non-governmental colleges, with a total of three million students.

Such colleges, without any investment from the government, have created a value of 300 billion yuan (US$36.1 billion) for the country over the past decade, said Ding Zuyi, president of the Xi'an Translations Institute.

"In fact, the colleges annually save 30 billion yuan (over US$3.6 billion) in expenses for the country as the annual cost to train and cultivate a college student is about 10,000 yuan (US$1,204)," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2003)