Original title: Increase investment, strengthen security, and achieve leapfrog development in preschool education (introduction)

Farewell to the "difficulty of entering the kindergarten" and let the children "go to the kindergarten" (theme)

Worker's Daily - Yu Zhongning, reporter of China Industrial Network

"If I could use one word to describe my career, it would be 'happiness'." Recently, Yu Lin, the head of the 16th Kindergarten in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, sincerely expressed her feelings at the news conference held by the Ministry of Education. She said that under the promotion of the policy, the public degree of the park has increased more than 10 times by leading the branch parks, and it has also formed a development community with 15 inclusive private parks in the region. In Chengdu, a large number of high-quality rural and township kindergartens have developed, and the coverage rate of high-quality preschool education resources has reached 89.04%.

The development of this kindergarten is a small miniature of China's preschool education. At the news conference, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Education said that in recent years, China has built a public service system for preschool education covering urban and rural areas and benefiting from public welfare by optimizing supply, strengthening security, promoting development and improving quality, and constantly promoted the safe and high-quality development of universal preschool education.

Once upon a time, "difficult to get into the kindergarten" and "expensive to get into the kindergarten" became a problem that puzzled many parents. Today, this problem has been basically solved.

"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 10 years to make up for historical arrears, which greatly alleviated the problem of 'difficult admission' and achieved the basic popularization of preschool education." The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Education said.

On the one hand, 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. In 2023, the gross enrollment rate of the three preschool years in China will reach 91.1%, 23.6 percentage points higher than that in 2013. On the other hand, the regional gap is narrowing. From 2013 to 2023, 17 provinces whose gross enrollment rate increased by more than 20 percentage points in the three preschool years are all in the central and western regions. For example, the enrollment rate in Leibo County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and Dari County and Maduo County, Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, reached more than 90% and 80% respectively. Children in poverty free areas and ethnic minority areas such as "three districts and three prefectures" enjoy equal access to the kindergarten as children in other areas.

In response to the problem of "expensive access to the park", the Ministry of Education, together with relevant departments, promoted local governments to implement their responsibilities and build a park management system with inclusive resources as the main body. Through various efforts, there will be 236000 inclusive kindergartens (including public kindergartens and inclusive private kindergartens) in 2023, accounting for 86.2% of the total number of kindergartens. There were 125000 public parks, an increase of 91.9% over 2013. 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.

Take Beijing as an example. At present, the inclusive rate in Haidian District has reached 92%. All inclusive parks are subsidized and charged according to the unified standard. Dong Yan, the head of Century Sunshine Kindergarten in Haidian District, said that after the kindergarten implemented the inclusive policy, the charge standard for childcare and education fees was reduced to 750 yuan per student per month, not higher than the government guidance price for first-class public kindergartens. The average subsidy for each student at the municipal level is 12000 yuan per year, and the average subsidy for each student at the district level is 6000 yuan per year. The total amount of the two subsidies reaches 18000 yuan per year, and they are transferred to the kindergarten account once every six months.

Zhou Jin, Deputy Director General of Guizhou Provincial Department of Education, introduced that the supervision and evaluation county of universal pre-school education in Guizhou has established a financial allocation system of no less than 600 yuan per student per year for the average public funds of public kindergartens, and has given 40 million yuan of provincial fund support for the establishment of pre-school education universal supervision and evaluation planning counties, and 50 million yuan of fund support for the early declaration counties.

In terms of scientific education protection and quality improvement, the Ministry of Education has guided all regions to strengthen the connotation construction of pre-school education quality and strive to meet the people's desire to "build a good kindergarten". Data shows that the ratio of kindergarten students to teachers has decreased from 23.4:1 in 2013 to 13.3:1 in 2023, and the proportion of principals above junior college level and full-time teachers has reached 93.1%, an increase of 23.7 percentage points over 2013.

It is understood that the Ministry of Education will work with relevant departments to promote the implementation of preschool education inclusive security action, promote the improvement of resource distribution in each county, and scientifically allocate urban and rural preschool education resources.

"The supply of public resources has been steadily increased in urban population inflow areas and in areas where public kindergartens account for a relatively low proportion of children in kindergartens. In rural population outflow areas, public township central parks and necessary village parks have been well run, and itinerant support education has been carried out to prevent resource waste and avoid new difficulties in enrollment caused by layout adjustment." said the head of the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education.