MAIN TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NON-STATE EDUCATION IN CHINA IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Since the beginning of the 21st century, for China, preparing a population capable of ensuring not only high growth rates in all areas of activity, but also improving its quality characteristics has become crucial. The PRC authorities proclaimed science and education to be the "foundation" of socialist modernization and the "root" of the further development of Chinese society. To deepen the transformation initiated during the period of reform and opening up, China's education system has come a long way of development. Until recently, the main focus for the authorities was the public education system, in the development of which impressive results have been achieved. The private education segment, although formally having political support from the state, nevertheless developed rather chaotically. Economic reforms in the country have created the preconditions for increasing the population's demand not only for public but also for private education, which was facilitated by a number of factors, including increased prosperity and urbanization. However, the development of the sphere of non-state education had pronounced regional specifics, and therefore occurred rather unevenly. 

Recently, the state has paid closer attention to industries that were previously largely in the shadow of reforms. The development of private educational institutions has become one of the important task areas of the authorities. 

The paper provides an overview of the development of private education in China from the 2000s to the present, when this segment has entered a new stage of development; the issues and features of the development of the non-state education sector are touched upon, prerequisites and upcoming reforms in the industry in the near future are considered.