June 12, 2023, Neijiang, Sichuan, on the football field of a kindergarten. (People's Vision/Photo)
Mama Xi, a young mother in Xiamen, successfully "picked up the leaks" in the fall of 2021 and enrolled her child in a provincial model kindergarten in Fujian Province.
The reason why they have to "pick up leaks" is because Xima's family is a collective hukou, and "in the choice of kindergarten school, it was originally relatively weak."
Xi's mother, who has a successful experience, has since set up a kindergarten parent exchange group in Xiamen on several social platforms, and most of the parents in the group are similar to her situation - collective households, or non-Xiamen household registration, anxious parents communicate in the group how to "pick up leaky cattle parks".
However, two years later, Xi's mother found that the information shared in the group had changed - from time to time, there was still information that there were still places available in public kindergartens.
Kindergartens are more sensitive to change than parents. In the 2023 enrollment season, Huli District of Xiamen City announced a list of 20 public parks that may have a surplus of places and are open to enroll students from outside films. In previous years, kindergarten places in the district were quite tight.
Similar situations have occurred in Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing, Jinan and other cities.
The number of births in China briefly rebounded after the comprehensive two-child policy in 2016, and then continued to decline, with 9.56 million births in 2022, a birth rate of 6.77‰, and the number of births fell below 10 million for the first time since 1950, and the national population decreased by 850,000 compared with the previous year, marking negative population growth.
Pre-school education bears the brunt of the chain of impact of declining birth rates on the field of education. Since 2017, the number of newborns in the country has decreased by 1 million to 2 million per year compared with the previous year, and the decrease in the number of births in each year will be reflected in the shortage of kindergarten students three years later.
However, this round of private kindergarten closures is not only due to the reduction of students, but also the structural adjustment of preschool education.
"You can go when you come"
Since 2023, many cities have seen a situation where it has become easier to attend public kindergartens.
Tianhe District of Guangzhou issued an announcement on July 7, 2023 that 64 public kindergartens are recruiting transfer students to the public. The list even includes some kindergartens that have been extremely popular in previous years and are hard to find.
As early as spring, 15 public kindergartens in the Chengdu High-tech Zone issued vacant degree enrollment announcements. Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, and Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, also have announcements of degree vacancies issued by traditional public parks.
For parents, it is undoubtedly good news to be able to attend public kindergartens.
"This year, there are many public kindergartens to choose from, and many are not even limited to household registration. Even in Siming District (the main urban area of Xiamen City), where the student supply is full, many parks have begun to open up the collective households in the receiving area. Mama Xi said.
Official information shows that after some public parks in Huli District opened to enroll foreign students in 2022, the enrollment plan of all four urban districts except Siming District this year states that public parks can recruit foreign students if they have a surplus of places after completing the enrollment plan of the area.
In fact, some new parks in Siming District also have cross-section enrollment. The Southern Weekend reporter called the newly opened General Ancestral Kindergarten in the district and learned that as of August 13, the kindergarten still has a surplus of 10 mixed classes of primary and middle classes, which can enroll children from Xiamen Gate, regardless of the area.
According to Xi's mother's observation, parents' school selection considerations have also changed, "from being able to go to school in the past, to now carefully examining multiple factors such as the distance of pick-up and drop-off of alternative schools, the environment, teachers, and curriculum."
The shortage of students has changed the previous "high and cold" attitude of the public park. Xi's mother gave an example, in previous years, public kindergartens were closed to the public, but in the past two years, many provincial model kindergartens have held parent-child open day activities, actively publicized, displayed campus style, and introduced teacher courses to attract students to sign up, "no longer just sitting and waiting for children to come".
A similar situation was encountered by Zhang Chengliang, a parent in Donghu District, Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province.
Zhang Chengliang's child was born on April 9, 2020, and this year enrolled in the kindergarten class. The children of his brother-in-law, who live in the same community, must be two years older.
Donghu District has the largest household registration population in Nanchang, and the public kindergartens in the district enrolling four classes each autumn, with a maximum of 40 students each. In the fall of 2021, when my brother-in-law's children entered school, they were one day late in signing up and were told that their places were full and they could only attend private kindergartens in the community.
Before the start of the fall 2023 enrollment, the community staff accompanied the admissions teachers of the public kindergarten to do a door-to-door intention survey, "The teacher said that the situation arranged by the Education Bureau is the bottom of the situation, once the enrollment is insufficient, the number of teachers in the public kindergarten must be adjusted, but the teachers cannot be left idle."
Zhang Chengliang tentatively asked if the degree was nervous, "I didn't expect the teacher to say that I could go when I came."
July 13, 2023, Hefei, a kindergarten in Feixi County. Graphics and text have nothing to do with text. (People's Vision/Photo)
The population has decreased, and public parks have increased
Compared with public kindergartens, other types of kindergartens feel the climate change of the industry earlier.
On August 15, 2023, when the kindergarten enrollment in Huli District of Xiamen City ended, Zhongzhai Ethnic Kindergarten only enrolled about half of the target small class students - the kindergarten is located in a community that is one of the main settlements of the population from inside and outside Xiamen Island, and has often lacked places for many years.
This is a ten-year-old collective kindergarten, organized by the Zhongzhai Community Neighborhood Committee, located near Wuyuan Bay, a landmark in Xiamen, and passed the evaluation and acceptance of "Xiamen Model Kindergarten" in 2016.
Wu Baochang, the head of admissions at the park, told Southern Weekend that they felt the pressure of the decrease in student sources as early as the fall enrollment in 2020.
In the fall of 2019, the park will enroll the children of the aborigines of Zhongzhai She ethnic community and the household registration residents of Guomao Run Garden (No. 7-28, Wuyuan West Erli), and require the household registration to meet the "two consistent" conditions (the household registration of the school-age child is the same as the household registration of the parents or one of the parents, and the actual place of residence is the same as the place of household registration), and if there are vacant places, some school-age children with household registration in Xiamen can also be enrolled. In the 2020 enrollment season, the "two unanxious" requirement was abolished, and the children of collective households and migrant workers in the area were also included in the enrollment scope.
While the admission requirements have been relaxed, the number of classes has gradually decreased.
According to the "Kindergarten Work Regulations" of the Ministry of Education, the number of kindergarten small classes is 25 students in principle. However, in order to meet the needs of school-age children in the surrounding areas, the enrollment scale of the small class of Zhongzhai Ethnic Kindergarten has been maintained at 4 classes for a long time, with 30 students per class.
Until 2020, the kindergarten often has more than 40 students. Wu Baochang said that after the fall enrollment in 2020, some classes had less than 30 students, and by 2022, each class would basically remain at about 20 students, "almost halved compared with the peak period."
By the autumn of 2023, when the school year is about to start, Zhongzhai Ethnic Kindergarten only enrolled 3 small classes and 1 nursery class, and the class size and total enrollment were not specified. Wu Baochang estimated that this year's enrollment will not reach the expected amount, and "it may be adjusted to two nursery classes and two small classes depending on the situation."
Why is this perennial kindergarten "unable to enter" "dissatisfied" for several years?
In addition to the impact of the declining birth rate, Zhongzhaishe community is the largest natural village in Xiamen Island, with a non-registered population of more than 30,000, but with the renovation project in 2019, the large-scale demolition of houses in the community has greatly reduced the number of migrant workers in the surrounding area.
No data on population changes in the Zhongzhai She community are available in public information. However, according to data released by the Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Statistics, the total population of Huli District, where the Zhongzhai She ethnic community is located, fell by 29,000 in 2022 from 1.025 million in 2021 to 996,000.
In addition, in 2021, the birth rate of Huli District was 8.85‰, the death rate was 2.89‰, and the natural population growth rate was 5.96‰; The data for 2022 are 7.56‰, 3.01‰ and 4.64‰, respectively. In 2021, there were 46 public (including collective) kindergartens and 121 private kindergartens (167 in total) in the district, with 10,966 students enrolled at the beginning of the school year and 36,353 students enrolled in kindergartens; In 2022, there will be 51 public (including collective) kindergartens and 112 private kindergartens (163 in total) in the district, with 9,651 students enrolled at the beginning of the school year and 34,202 students in kindergartens.
It can be seen that the birth rate, natural population growth rate, number of private kindergartens, enrollment in kindergarten school year, and number of kindergartens in Huli District are all declining, but the number of public (including collective) kindergartens is increasing.
This is also a factor that cannot be ignored in the difficulty of kindergarten enrollment.
In December 2021, the Ministry of Education and other nine departments issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development and Improvement of Preschool Education", which further put forward the "5085" goal on the original "5080": by 2025, the coverage rate of inclusive kindergartens nationwide will reach more than 85%, and the proportion of children in public kindergartens will reach more than 50%, and continue to require "promoting the expansion and efficiency of inclusive resources, and building and expanding a number of public kindergartens".
According to the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Education in Huli District (2021-2025)" released in 2020, Huli District plans to build, renovate and expand a number of schools every year, and strive to build about 20 public kindergartens and about 7,200 new places by 2025, with a proportion of children in public kindergartens reaching 60% and a universal rate of 91%, of which, in terms of new public kindergartens, Huli District will strive to have at least one public kindergarten in each community.
In the fall of 2023, Huli District will open 5 new office kindergartens and add 1,440 public degrees, one of which is located in Zhongzhai Community.
The fate of private kindergartens
According to the "2022 National Education Development Statistical Communiqué" released by the Ministry of Education, in 2022, the gross enrollment rate of preschool education will be 89.7%, an increase of 1.6% over the previous year; There were 46,275,500 kindergartens nationwide, down about 1.77 million from the previous year, which is the second consecutive year of decline; there are 289,200 kindergartens nationwide, down 5,610 from the previous year, and the number of kindergartens has experienced negative growth for the first time since 2008.
"It's too hard to enroll now, it's much bleaker than in previous years." Hong Lan, the director of a private kindergarten in Zhoukou City, Henan Province, started her own kindergarten in 1998.
Taking small class enrollment as an example, before 2020, whether in spring or autumn, Hong Lan's kindergarten small class can recruit 2 to 3 classes, the size of one class is 25 people, and the maximum time is nearly 80 students.
In 2021, the "difficulty in enrollment" began to appear, and the small class barely recruited 2 classes, with a total of more than 40 children. By 2022, Hong Lan has only enrolled one class with 24 students. "Exponentially down, it could be worse this year." The fall enrollment of the local private park has not yet ended, and Hong Lan cannot help but worry.
Her peers have already experienced the industry's winter.
Since 2023, Haizhu District, Huangpu District, Huadu District and Panyu District of Guangzhou have all publicly announced the approval of private kindergartens to terminate their operation.
In August, 50 private kindergartens in Linquan County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province were terminated. With a registered population of 2.307 million, Linquan County is the most populous county in China.
In addition, private kindergartens in Wenzhou, Zhejiang and Weifang, Shandong have closed down one after another.
At the same time, various localities have successively issued their own "14th Five-Year Plan" preschool education plans, for example, Henan will build 253 new public kindergartens, renovate and expand 406 in 2022, and add 136,500 public degrees, and continue to vigorously develop public kindergartens in 2023, planning to expand 100,000 public degrees; Jiangsu plans to build, renovate and expand about 1,000 kindergartens in the province; Shandong plans to focus on supporting the transformation and upgrading of rural public kindergartens; Beijing has set a target of 50% public kindergartens.
Hong Lan stressed that although it is also facing the dilemma of "difficulty in enrollment", compared with public kindergartens, private kindergartens have higher costs, teacher salaries, venue rent are not small expenses, and the risks to bear are also higher.
However, in Wu Baochang's view, the continuous construction of public and inclusive kindergartens represents a trend: preschool education is truly inclusive in society, and at the same time, it forces private kindergartens with insufficient qualifications in the market to withdraw on their own.
"It's a survival of the fittest process." Wu Baochang said, "What we hope is that all children can go to public kindergartens. At the same time, there are some private kindergartens to supplement the high-end services that inclusive education cannot provide, and meet the expectations and needs of people at different levels in the society for preschool education. ”
"Difficulty in entering the park" still exists
The shortage of students encountered by urban kindergartens has not yet spread to the more peripheral urban and rural areas. But even so, in the context of a demographic reversal, it seems only a matter of time.
"It's definitely okay to fill up this year." Zheng Jinghong, director of the Sanmen County Kindergarten in Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, is very confident about this year's situation.
Sanmen County is one of the 26 mountainous counties in Zhejiang Province, and its economic and social development has long lagged behind the average level of Zhejiang Province. In terms of kindergarten construction, including the above-mentioned institutional kindergartens, the county has only four public kindergartens in the central area of Chengguan. "This is very rare in public kindergartens in various places," Zheng Jinghong, who said, adding that Tiantai County, which is also a mountainous county and has a similar area, has more than 10 public kindergartens in the urban area.
Zheng Jinghong introduced that due to the lagging development, the county financial investment in the construction of preschool education is too small, and the supporting kindergartens in the urban community have not been able to keep up in time, and it is necessary to rely on private kindergartens to supplement the supply of preschool education for a long time.
According to data released by the Sanmen County Education Bureau, the proportion of public kindergarten places in the county is only 32%, and in Hairun Street, located in the central urban area, this value is even only 9.07%, far from the 50% target proposed by the Ministry of Education in the 14th Five-Year Plan. Therefore, when the student source is full, lottery admission is the norm for the enrollment of 4 public kindergartens in Sanmen County.
But the situation is not optimistic. According to data from the Sanmen County Statistics Bureau, there are only more than 3,600 children born in 2020 enrolled this year, while the average before 2015 was about 5,500. The peak number of school-age children enrolled in Sanmen County occurred in 2017, with 6,648.
However, the agglomeration effect brought about by urban development has kept the number of school-age children in the central urban area still at a high level. Public data shows that the number of children in kindergarten in the central urban area of Sanmen County accounts for more than half of the total number of children in kindergarten in the county.
The lack of construction of public parks and the factors of population flow make the problem of "difficulty in entering the park" in the central urban area of Sanmen County still prominent.
But Zheng Jinghong also observed that in towns or streets outside the central urban area, the problem of the source of students caused by the decline in the birth population has become prominent: Shaliu Street in the non-main urban area used to enroll 70 or 80 people in previous years, but this year it only enrolled less than 40 young children. "Overall, this is consistent with local demographic trends." Zheng Jinghong said.
The situation in Minqing County of Fuzhou City is similar to that of Sanmen County. The Southern Weekend reporter learned that there is currently no shortage of enrollment in public and private kindergartens in Minqing County, although there is a phenomenon that popular public kindergartens are difficult to find, but kindergartens in some townships have begun to encounter enrollment problems.
It is worth noting that Sanmen County and Minqing County are both counties with low development levels in their respective provinces. What is the situation of kindergarten students in ordinary prefecture-level cities?
The director of a public kindergarten in Jiawan District, Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, who did not want to be named, told Southern Weekend that according to the survey, the kindergarten plans to enroll a total of 120 students in four small classes this year, but the actual number of applicants is more than 140, and there are still more students than expected.
In the public information, there is no change in the number of public kindergartens in Jiawan District in recent years. However, according to Xuzhou's plan for preschool education, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Xuzhou will build 125 new kindergartens and expand 8 kindergartens to ensure that the coverage rate of public kindergartens reaches 65%.
However, compared with the "fierce competition" in previous years, this year only exceeded more than 20 people, which has greatly eased the pressure of enrollment. The principal said: "Before this year, when the admissions season came, parents queued up for at least one night. The leaders of the park did not dare to answer the phone, for fear of greeting the Cypriot people. ”
The principal also realized that if the day came when there was a shortage of students, they might have to follow the example of township public kindergartens and use school buses to pick up and drop off their children every day, ensure that school-age children have access to school, and return kindergartens to their role as public services.
(At the request of interviewees, Lan Hong is a pseudonym.) Southern Weekend interns Zhang Kan and Qian Chuyi also contributed to this article. ）
Southern Weekend Reporter Zhai Xingli Southern Weekend Intern Yang Xin Ji Shujuan
Editor-in-charge: Wu Xiaoyu