The closure of kindergartens in many places is a good thing for children

Chao News Client Writing Xue Wenchun, Shen Lin, Zhang Rong

Recently, Hunan, a province with a large population, has introduced a new policy: orderly organization of kindergartens and transfers.

Screenshot of the document of the Hunan Provincial Department of Education

This is also the first province in mainland China to propose to adjust the layout of kindergartens at the provincial level.

In recent years, there has been a lot of news about the closure of kindergartens across the country. Anhui, Fujian and Hainan have all been exposed to the large-scale closure of kindergartens. Hunan's move is also a response to changes in the scale and structure of education.

Why are there repeated incidents of kindergarten closures? What is the situation in Zhejiang? Will the closure trigger a chain reaction?

"Disappeared" kindergarten

According to the "2022 National Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Education", there are 289,200 kindergartens in the country, a decrease of 5,610 or 1.90% from the previous year, which is also the first negative growth since 2008.

In fact, the news about the closure of kindergartens has not been interrupted over the years, from big cities to small counties.

In August this year, the Education Bureau of Linquan County, Anhui Province issued an announcement that 50 local private kindergartens were terminated. Among them, 12 kindergartens applied for termination of schooling, and 38 kindergartens had no actual enrollment and school-running behavior, accounting for 11.8% of the total number of kindergartens in the county in 2022 and 24.5% of the total number of private kindergartens in the county.

The same situation is happening in Fujian and Hainan. In September, 17 private kindergartens in Longhai District, Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province applied for termination. In November, the results of the 2023 annual inspection of private primary and secondary schools and kindergartens in Haikou City, Hainan Province were released, and 33 private kindergartens were suspended, which sparked heated discussions in the society.

Kindergarten closed. Source: Visual China

In Zhejiang, the total number of kindergartens is also decreasing. Judging from the number of kindergartens in the past three years, there were 8,009 kindergartens in Zhejiang in 2020, 7,890 in 2021, and 7,709 in 2022. This is equivalent to a reduction of 300 stores in three years, with an average of 100 closures per year.

In September, a private kindergarten in Jinhua was closed. With the help of the education department, Li Min, the director of the "post-90s" kindergarten, properly arranged the school staff and merged the remaining children into a nearby public kindergarten.

"I don't regret it, I wish I could settle the child and the teacher. Although he chose to face it calmly, on the day the school closed, Li Min couldn't help but redden. When she came to work in the kindergarten, she lived in the school every day and developed a strong bond with the teachers and children. Every person and every inch of land here makes her reluctant to give up.

At present, Li Min has changed careers and left the preschool education industry.

Population decline is not the main cause

Many people believe that the depopulation is the main factor, but it is not entirely.

After the news of "the closure of 50 kindergartens in the largest county of Chinese", a set of public government data was repeatedly mentioned: "Linquan County will have 58,243 children in kindergartens in 2023, a decrease of 9.2% over the previous year, which is the fourth consecutive year of reduction." ”

Another set of data has been ignored: "In 2022, 9 kindergartens will be built, renovated and expanded in Linquan County, and 2,070 public kindergarten places will be effectively expanded." ”

In fact, the 50 kindergartens closed in Linquan County are all private, and the number of public kindergartens has increased instead of falling.

The situation is similar in Zhejiang.

"The decline in the number of births is not the main reason for the decline in the number of private kindergartens, but only one of the reasons. The relevant person in charge of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education said that in recent years, party committees and governments at all levels in Zhejiang have taken preschool education as an important livelihood project, coordinated the allocation of resources and changes in the demand for kindergartens, and steadily increased the supply of public degrees. Focus on cities and towns, adapt measures to local conditions, add a new batch of public kindergartens through new construction, reconstruction and expansion, agreement acquisition, etc., rely on township public center kindergartens to run village-level parks, promote the integration of urban and rural preschool education, and continuously narrow the gap between urban and rural preschool education development.

Teachers and students of a kindergarten in Zhejiang observed and discussed the collective activities of the kindergarten. Photo courtesy of the interviewee

The decline in the number of private kindergartens in the past two years is actually a normal development change——

First, the survival of the fittest, low, small, scattered, and low-quality private gardens were shut down, and the government acquired a number of high-quality inclusive private parks and turned them into public parks.

Second, the market takes the initiative to choose. Due to the decrease in school-age children, some private kindergartens have transformed to childcare, and parents have changed their education concepts, and they are more inclined to send their children to public kindergartens with low fees and high quality, resulting in some high-fee private kindergartens having difficulties in recruiting students and cessating.

"In the next few years, there will be fewer and fewer students every year, and we will have to pay for our own profits and losses, and there is no need to do it. Wang Li, director of a private kindergarten in Hangzhou, is confused about the future prospects.

She calculated an account, for inclusive private kindergartens, the threshold of government subsidies has been raised, and if it continues, it must be a loss-making transaction. "There is a public park 3 kilometers away, with a good environment and low tuition. ”　

For a long time, private pre-school education is the main force of pre-school education in the mainland, in order to solve the contradiction that the supply of pre-school education is far from meeting the growing demand for pre-school education of the people.

There is a market where there is demand, but at the same time, in the past few years, preschool education has also been excessively marketized, and even blind expansion, vicious competition, poor management and other problems.

With the introduction of the national normative documents on the deepening reform of preschool education, higher requirements have been put forward for kindergarten qualifications, safety supervision, and health care. Therefore, some poorly managed and poorly managed private kindergartens are eliminated.

In addition, with the continuous improvement of urbanization, a large number of rural people, especially young people, continue to pour into cities, and rural kindergartens have to be withdrawn.

Kindergarten classrooms. Source: Visual China

The reshuffle of preschool education

However, more ripple effects are gradually being felt after the closure of kindergartens. Early childhood education practitioners bear the brunt.

Before graduating last year, Cen Xingxing, a preschool education major, learned that the number of kindergarten teachers was shrinking. For this reason, she gave up her plan to enter a kindergarten in Shanghai. Within a year of working, two kindergarten teachers at her kindergarten were dismissed. "Many kindergartens in Shanghai are reducing classes and teachers. Cen Xingxing said.

In Zhejiang, the demand for kindergarten teacher positions has also declined significantly.

Fan Fufu, dean of the Normal College of Jinhua Vocational and Technical College, said bluntly, "In the autumn recruitment season of previous years, more than ten county-level education bureaus took the initiative to contact us to recruit in the school every year. This year, only five or six education bureaus reached out. ”

For students and parents, the closure of kindergartens sends a double signal.

Kindergarten places have gone from shortage to surplus, which means that the threshold for admission to most kindergartens will be lowered, reducing the pressure on parents. But on the other hand, "if some private kindergartens are closed, there are no public kindergartens or other private inclusive kindergartens nearby, children will have to go to kindergartens farther away." Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said.

In his view, in response to the changes in the school-age population, all localities should carry out forward-looking and scientific top-level design to avoid disorderly closure of kindergartens. Fan Fufu also suggested that some rural kindergartens should be appropriately retained, especially those far from the town.

The closure of kindergartens will be inevitable due to the decrease in school-age children, but at the same time, it also provides an opportunity for the inclusive development of preschool education. The long-awaited small class sizes may become feasible.

In order to develop HP preschool education, the mainland requires that financial preschool education funds account for about 9% of the total financial education funds, while at present, the proportion in many places is only 5%. The corresponding problems are the low salaries of preschool teachers and the large number of kindergarten classes.

Xiong Bingqi said that the standard kindergarten class size on the mainland is 25 in small classes, 30 in middle classes, and 35 in large classes, and the ratio of full-time kindergarten teachers to children is 1:15. In developed countries, the maximum class size is 20 students, and the teacher-to-child ratio of full-time teachers is 1:7 to 1:10.

If we take this opportunity to improve the construction standards of kindergartens, promote the construction of "small gardens and small classes", and promote the integration of childcare, it will help optimize the allocation of preschool education resources and improve the quality of education.

Kindergarten Affiliated to Golden Vocational Academy. Photo courtesy of the interviewee

"The integration of childcare is the way forward. In this regard, the kindergarten affiliated to Jinhua Vocational and Technical College has taken the lead in layout, "We have been providing childcare services for 2-3-year-old children, and we plan to start enrolling 0-2-year-old infants and toddlers in the spring class next year." Fan Fufu said that the college also plans to open a major in infant and toddler care services and management next year to cultivate childcare talents.

"The reshuffle is forcing the reform of private kindergartens," Wang Li believes that private kindergartens should be transformed and upgraded in an all-round way, improve software and hardware services, strengthen the characteristics of kindergartens, and improve the quality of teachers.

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