Education bureau issues notice, revoking Hualin Kindergarten’s permit, tells parents to find alternative education

By Rachel Ritchie

(Liuzhou, Guangxi–March 11, 2015) The Yufeng District Education Bureau in Liuzhou, in China’s southern Guangxi, issued a public notice on March 3, stating that the Hualin Foreign Language Experimental Kindergarten, founded by the Guangzhou-based Liangren Church, had violated the law while conducting activities and had its permit revoked. The notice also advised parents not to send their children to the school.

The students’ parents’ told China Aid that on March 2, the education bureau distributed letters to them at the kindergarten’s gate. The letter stated that Hualin Foreign Language Experimental Kindergarten used illegal religious textbooks while educating the kindergarteners, illegally preached religion, and compelled the children to believe in religion. In addition, the letter said, such conduct negatively impacted the learning to which the children are legally entitled. The administrative punishment imposed on the kindergarten forced the school to stop enrolling new students and revoked the school’s permit.

A similar order was issued on Aug. 8, 2014, which stated that the school’s leaders were “disqualified” from running the school for “forcing citizens to believe in a religion.” The school, however, did not close at that time.

China Aid received information from the Internet, indicating that the Hualin Kindergarten is a category-one and class-one school specializing in childcare and wellbeing. The Guangxi Health Department once recognized the kindergarten for its efforts to “meet health and childcare standards.” The school has also participated in national and local painting and performance arts competitions, where its students have excelled.

Hualin Kindergarten has been persecuted since February 2014, when Liuzhou Public Security Bureau officers took the school’s director and a teacher into custody, citing “illegal business operations.” The teacher, Mo Xiliu, was later released. Cheng Jie, the director, remains in custody along with three others, taken into custody from their homes in Guangzhou in June 2014, who officials say were also involved in the “illegal” self-publishing of the school’s character improvement textbooks.

The trial for Cheng and the others, Huang Quirui, Li Jiatao and Fang Bin, began on Feb. 6 and continued on Feb. 9. 

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China Aid Contacts
Rachel Ritchie, English Media Director
Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985
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