Original title:
China Singapore Education | Ministry of Education: Promote universal, inclusive, safe and high-quality development of preschool education
China News Network, May 16 The Ministry of Education held a news briefing on the morning of the 16th to introduce the progress, achievements and typical experience of preschool education reform and development. In the distributed materials, the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education pointed out that it would earnestly implement the requirements of the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China on "strengthening inclusive development of preschool education", take the implementation of the "14th Five Year Plan" action plan for the development and improvement of preschool education and the action plan for the expansion, optimization and improvement of basic education as the starting point, and accelerate the promotion of universal, inclusive, safe and high-quality development of preschool education.
According to the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education, preschool education concerns the healthy growth of hundreds of millions of children, the harmony and happiness of thousands of families, and the development of the country and the future of the nation. In recent years, the Ministry of Education has conscientiously implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, with the purpose of "making preschool education satisfactory to the people", and earnestly implemented the requirements of General Secretary Xi Jinping on "promoting the safe and high-quality development of universal and inclusive preschool education", to optimize supply, strengthen security, promote development, and improve quality, so as to build a network covering urban and rural areas The public service system of pre-school education, which is public welfare and inclusive, promotes pre-school education to serve people's livelihood and the strategy of serving a strong country to become more stable.
The Division pointed out that preschool education has achieved leapfrog development.
First, system deployment and clear direction. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to pre-school education. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to "run pre-school education well", the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China required to "make new progress in children's education", and the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China required to "strengthen the inclusive development of pre-school education". The CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued Several Opinions on Deepening the Reform and Standardizing the Development of Preschool Education, which further clarified the basic direction of public welfare and benefits for preschool education, proposed the goals and tasks of universal benefits and a series of major policies and measures. This is the first preschool education document specially issued in the name of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council since the founding of New China, It is a milestone for the reform and development of preschool education. In accordance with the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the Ministry of Education, together with relevant departments, has continuously implemented four action plans for preschool education. Last year, the Ministry launched the action plan for improving the quality of basic education, and promoted all regions to determine development goals and tasks to adapt to different stages of development. Various measures have been taken to promote the sustainable development of preschool education.
The second is to make up for the shortage of resources and promote popularization. In response to the demand for rigid admission during the peak population period, various regions expanded inclusive resources through multiple channels, vigorously developed public parks, actively supported inclusive private parks, and took ten years to make up for historical arrears, which greatly alleviated the problem of "difficult admission" and achieved the basic popularization of preschool education. Preschool education resources have increased rapidly. By 2023, the number of kindergartens in China will reach 274000, an increase of 76000 or 38.2% over 2013. The gross enrollment rate continued to increase rapidly. In 2023, the gross enrollment rate of the national preschool three years will reach 91.1%, 23.6 percentage points higher than that in 2013. The regional gap continues to narrow. From 2013 to 2023, 17 provinces with a growth rate of more than 20 percentage points in gross enrollment rate in preschool three years are all in the central and western regions. Leibo County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province has a enrollment rate of more than 90%, Dari County and Maduo County, Golog Prefecture, Qinghai Province have a enrollment rate of more than 80%. Children in poverty alleviation areas such as "three districts and three prefectures" and ethnic minority areas have equal access to kindergarten as children in other regions.
The third is to cover urban and rural areas and promote inclusive benefits. In order to solve the problem of the high cost of entering the park, the Ministry of Education has always firmly grasped the basic direction of public welfare and mutual benefit, worked with relevant departments to promote local governments to effectively implement their responsibilities, build a park management system with inclusive resources as the main body, carry out the governance of supporting parks in urban communities in cities, and build a county and rural pre-school public service network in rural areas. In 2023, there will be 236000 inclusive kindergartens (including public kindergartens and inclusive private kindergartens) nationwide, accounting for 86.2% of the total number of kindergartens. Among them, there are 125000 public parks, an increase of 91.9% over 2013, giving full play to the important role of public parks in ensuring the basic, covering the bottom line, leading the direction and stabilizing charges. The level of inclusiveness has increased significantly. The proportion of children in national inclusive kindergartens reached 90.8%, 23.5 percentage points higher than that in 2016. Most children can attend inclusive kindergartens with reasonable fees.
Fourth, increase investment and strengthen security. In order to effectively reduce the burden of family education, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance adhere to the principle of focusing on government investment, reasonably sharing the funds among families and raising funds through various other channels, and constantly improve the pre-school education investment guarantee mechanism to ensure that the people can afford it. Financial input continued to increase. From 2011 to 2023, the central government invested 221 billion yuan in supporting pre-school education development, driving local governments to further increase financial investment and improve the investment guarantee mechanism. In 2022, the national financial pre-school education funds will reach 298.22 billion yuan, accounting for 6.2% of the financial education funds, 1.8 times that of 2013. Cost sharing mechanism is basically established. In conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, the benchmark quota of public funds per student of public kindergartens at the national level was issued. The standard of public funds per student of public kindergartens and the subsidy standard of inclusive private kindergartens were generally issued everywhere. In combination with financial subsidies and local economic development, the charging standard of public kindergartens was dynamically adjusted, the maximum charging limit of inclusive private kindergartens was determined, and the cost of running kindergartens was shared by the government, We will effectively reduce the financial burden on families. The funding system has been continuously improved. The central government set up a subsidy fund to guide local governments to establish a subsidy system for pre-school education from scratch. From 2013 to 2022, a total of 82.5 billion yuan was invested by governments at all levels to subsidize 65.51 million people from economically disadvantaged families, orphans and disabled children to receive inclusive pre-school education.
Fifth, improve the system and governance. In order to ensure the physical and mental health and safety of children in the kindergarten, we should take multiple measures to promote all kindergartens around the country to manage education and run kindergartens according to law. Improve the management system. Together with relevant departments, we have successively issued normative documents on kindergarten construction, faculty allocation and professional standards, safety protection, health care, etc., and established a relatively complete management system. Establish a supervision and evaluation mechanism. We will fully implement the supervision and assessment of universal and inclusive pre-school education at the county level and the supervision and assessment of kindergarten running behavior, and strengthen the responsibility of county governments to develop pre-school education and standardize the running of kindergartens. By 2023, 153 counties have successfully passed the supervision, assessment and acceptance at the national level, and all kindergartens across the country have completed a round of assessment. We will continue to promote special governance. Several special clean-up and rectification measures have been deployed to deal with problems such as non-standard names, arbitrary charges and false publicity of kindergartens, effectively reversing the problem of some kindergartens' non-standard operation. Strengthen the safety bottom line. We will implement the three-year action plan for security construction in primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, and establish a security system that combines civil defense, physical defense, and technical defense.
Sixth, scientific education and quality improvement. The Ministry of Education has always adhered to respecting children and laws, guided all regions to strengthen the connotation construction of pre-school education quality, and worked hard to meet the people's desire for a good kindergarten. Build a strong team of teachers. Continuously improve the level of teachers' allocation. The ratio of students to teachers in kindergartens will be reduced from 23.4:1 in 2013 to 13.3:1 in 2023. The proportion of principals above junior college level and full-time teachers will reach 93.1%, an increase of 23.7 percentage points over 2013. The "National Training Program for Kindergarten Teachers" has been implemented for ten consecutive years, and all kindergarten principals and full-time teachers have been trained. Strengthen scientific guidance. We will print and distribute professional documents on kindergarten care education, quality assessment and other aspects, guide kindergartens to take games as the basic activities, continue to carry out practical exploration in "what to learn", "how to learn", "what to teach" and "how to teach", deeply promote the key action of connecting children and primary schools, vigorously promote advanced typical experience, and promote the smooth transition of children's enrollment. Carry out scientific child rearing publicity. The "National Preschool Education Publicity Month" activity has been carried out for 13 consecutive years, with the theme of "games light up happy childhood", "coordination between children and primary schools, scientific convergence", etc., to continuously spread scientific education concepts and methods to the whole society, and promote scientific child care knowledge to reach thousands of families.
Seventh, promote legislation and ensure development. On the basis of a comprehensive summary of the reform and development of pre-school education, the Law on Preschool Education (Draft) was studied and drafted, and public comments were solicited. After deliberation at the meeting of the Central Leading Group for Education Work and discussion and adoption at the executive meeting of the State Council, it was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for initial deliberation and adoption. The draft focuses on breaking down the institutional and institutional barriers that hinder the development of preschool education, focusing on refining the successful policy experience of preschool education development, basing on the present and looking into the future, and making comprehensive provisions from six aspects, namely, clarifying the orientation of preschool education, improving the planning and organizing mechanism, standardizing the implementation of preschool education, improving the investment mechanism, and improving the supervision system, Ensure the sustainable development of preschool education.
In consideration of the next step, the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education said that although pre-school education has achieved basic popularization, the contradiction of weak foundation, large debt and unbalanced and inadequate development is still prominent. With population change and the advancement of urbanization, the layout and structure of pre-school education resources are facing new challenges. Next, we will earnestly implement the requirements of the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China on "strengthening inclusive development of preschool education", and accelerate the safe and high-quality development of universal and inclusive preschool education by implementing the "14th Five Year Plan" action plan for the development and improvement of preschool education and the action plan for the expansion and improvement of basic education.
First, optimize the allocation of preschool education resources. We will work with relevant departments to promote the implementation of inclusive pre-school education security action, promote each county as a unit to improve the distribution of resources, scientifically allocate urban and rural pre-school education resources, and steadily increase the supply of public resources in urban population inflow areas and public parks in areas with a low proportion of kindergarten children. In the rural population outflow areas, the public township central parks and necessary village parks should be well run, and itinerant support education should be carried out to prevent resource waste and avoid new enrollment difficulties caused by layout adjustment. At the same time, seize the opportunity to optimize the structure of the park and the ratio of teachers and students, and improve the overall level of the park.
Second, improve the inclusive security mechanism. The central government will continue to allocate special funds to support the development of preschool education, encourage and guide local governments to optimize resource supply, improve investment, teachers and other security mechanisms. At the national level, we accelerated the identification of a number of counties for the supervision and evaluation of universal preschool education, carried out in-depth pilot work to improve the inclusive security mechanism, urged all localities to implement and improve the standard of public funds per student and the standard of subsidies for inclusive private parks in accordance with national standards, coordinated the allocation of surplus resources, and gave priority to the verification and supplement of the number of teachers in public parks, We will promote the inclusion of teachers and administrators in public kindergartens into the management of staffing, ensure that teachers receive equal pay for equal work, and urge private kindergartens to increase teachers' salaries.
Third, improve the quality of kindergartens. In the "Year of Standardized Management" of basic education, we organized and carried out special treatment for kindergarten running behavior, included the troubleshooting of potential safety hazards and the implementation of safety responsibilities into the content of standardized rectification, and promoted all regions to rectify the non-standard problems of kindergartens in place. Deeply promote the pilot work of improving the quality of kindergarten care and education, guide kindergartens to carry out self-evaluation practice and exploration, constantly improve teachers' practical ability of care and education, and comprehensively improve the quality of kindergarten care and education under the guidance of advanced experience.
Fourth, we will promote the implementation of the Preschool Education Law. The Ministry of Education will fully cooperate with the Legislative Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress to work against the clock to revise and improve the draft, promote the promulgation of the Preschool Education Law as soon as possible, and help the preschool education cause to realize "there are laws to abide by and laws must abide by" as soon as possible. We will seize the favorable opportunity of the implementation of the Preschool Education Law, promote the comprehensive popularization of preschool education everywhere, introduce relevant policies and measures, and ensure the healthy development of preschool education according to law.
