This article is authorized to be reprinted from: Polar Day Studio (media-fox) Author: Wei Xiaohan Editor: Wang Sango
Private kindergartens have closed down, public kindergartens have laid off staff, and the preschool education industry is in a difficult situation in an environment where the fertility rate is gradually declining. In fact, the reasons behind it are far more complex than the reduction of children.
In the midst of the crisis, preschool teachers are "saving themselves". Some people are forced to change careers, and some people take the initiative to say goodbye. Faced with a career choice again, the teachers realized that the accumulation of the past could not help much, and they needed to start from scratch and truly move towards a complex society that belonged to adults.
Another "kindergarten"
Last September, Xiao Zhang, who is in his twenties, came to work at the nursing home for the first day, and his first impression was quiet. It's in a "very high-end" building, and the old people sit in the corridors of the nursing home, some of them can take care of themselves, and some of them are confused. The interior design is familiar to her, with cute stickers glued to the notice board or hanging from the ceiling, and colorful balloons forming arches, as if you are in another kindergarten.
Two months ago, she was a kindergarten teacher. Now, in addition to being responsible for the activity planning and trivial daily work of the nursing home, when the caregiver is not there, we also have to learn to help the elderly turn over and change bags, "to make the family feel that we attach great importance to the elderly." ”
Xiao Zhang felt that he had adapted quite quickly. A lot of work can be reflected in the experience of preschool education in the past - dealing with family members is also the daily work of kindergartens, and she is very experienced in this area; When she met some old people who were clamoring to go home and crying, she came to coax them. She thinks that coaxing the elderly is much simpler than coaxing children, "The child has to make up (stories) for him, and the old man can tell the truth, such as telling him that your son will come to see you after you obediently take the medicine, and this matter will pass at once."
She still has a "podium", but the audience has changed from a noisy child to a silver-haired old man. Xiao Zhang took them to sing, learn to dance with gestures, and also play music, which is her specialty in kindergarten. The old people in the audience, their movements and expressions look the same as those of children, and they are all slow learners.
Xiao Zhang in a nursing home Courtesy of the narrator
Before coming to this nursing home, Xiao Zhang worked as a teacher in a public kindergarten in Xi'an for about a year. This is a job that satisfies parents, stable, with five insurances and one housing fund, sufficient holidays, and good benefits. So much so that when she switched to the pension industry, her parents were very unsupportive. "They feel that dealing with children is very energetic and simple, and their thinking will be solidified when they are with the elderly."
Xiao Zhang doesn't think so. Leaving kindergarten is more about feeling free. Being tired and physically unbearable is the most direct feeling as a preschool teacher. The administrative affairs of public kindergartens are complex, a meeting starts in three hours, and the pressure of teacher skills training, preparation for open classes, and environmental innovation (note: refers to the creation of the internal and external environment of the kindergarten, including indoor and outdoor wall design, the layout of activity equipment, greening and breeding, creating a teacher-student relationship, teaching style, etc.) are all on the teacher. The work is so intense that she goes to bed at two o'clock in the middle of the night almost every night.
In her observations, this is also the norm for the colleagues around her - the work is intense, physically and mentally exhausted, and the income is small. Xiao Zhang's salary is more than 3,000 a month, and there is not much left after paying the rent of 2,000. There was no way, so she could only secretly work part-time on weekends, teaching at training institutions to subsidize living expenses.
She loves to spend time with the children, and she is really happy to remember the scene of receiving small gifts made by the children and running to her as soon as they enter the kindergarten. However, half of the year, the kindergarten was closed due to the epidemic, and the remaining half a year, she was sent to the education department for a temporary job, and the time to really contact the children was only three months.
The final decision was forced by the layoffs in September last year. Her public kindergarten has dismissed many contract employees, although she has a staff, and she is not on the list, but she still has a strong sense of crisis, and I don't know when it will be laid off on her head?
Zhang's worries are not unfounded. In the past two years, there has been news of declining fertility rates and kindergarten closures, and since 2021, the number of kindergartens has been declining year by year. In 2023, the number of newborns in mainland China will reach the lowest level in history, according to the statistical bulletin issued by the Ministry of Education, the number of kindergartens in the country will decrease by more than 5,000 in the same year, and the number of full-time preschool teachers will decrease by 170,000 compared with the previous year.
Although he didn't think about what to do with his trip, Xiao Zhang still made up his mind to leave. Like Xiao Zhang, many kindergarten teachers are on the road to changing careers, and the whereabouts they share online are also varied, doing customer service, sales, HR, nail art, and some like Xiao Zhang have entered the elderly care institutions, with the gradual aging of the population, this industry is more and more optimistic; There are also people who really can't find a suitable place to go and work temporarily in fruit shops.
Now that I think about it, it was a somewhat lucky departure, and two months later, a former colleague who was still in kindergarten came to Xiao Zhang to complain that his salary had not been paid on time for a long time.
Photo courtesy of the narrator of the kindergarten where Xiao Zhang once worked
The battle for the source of life
If there was any signal before the closure of the private kindergarten in Harbin, Yang Yue felt that it was probably "old arrears of wages". Since October last year, the salary has not been paid on time, and during the Chinese New Year, she was still busy urging the director on WeChat to forcibly return a part. Even so, she didn't think about taking the initiative to leave, and she had feelings for getting along with her children, and she didn't want to change places casually.
The life-or-death moment soon came, and the new school year began in March this year, and there were still very few children recruited. The news of the closure came suddenly, and it wasn't until the day the landlord put up a banner for rent that she knew that the kindergarten was yellow. At that time, there were nearly 30 children in the park, and they were hastily evacuated.
Compared with the data from the Ministry of Education in previous years, the number of private kindergartens has begun to decline year by year since 2020. Yang Yue found that in the past two years, it was obvious that she could not recruit children. "If you can't recruit enough children, the kindergarten is afraid that the Education Bureau will fail to pass the inspection, so it will send teachers out to distribute leaflets to enroll students."
Sometimes at three or four o'clock in the afternoon, when the nearby public kindergarten is out of school, the principal of the private kindergarten where Yang Yue is located leads a bunch of teachers to squat at the door and distribute leaflets to parents and children after school. Teachers are not idle on weekends, in order to recruit students, they have to prepare a variety of free parent-child activities, organize bubble blowing and playing in the summer, make cakes and pick in the spring, and so on.
Yang Yue's kindergarten is located in a highly competitive area, surrounded by four or five kindergartens, both public and private, and a child will quickly transfer to another nearby one when he leaves the kindergarten. The pressure to retain students has also been transferred to early childhood teachers.
The child's attendance rate is linked to the teacher's income, and when she asks for leave, goes back to her hometown, or goes out to play, Yang Yue has to find a way to communicate with the parents, "Worry about it from time to time - how is the baby?" Teachers and children miss you very much in kindergarten. Come back early, you can't keep up with too many classes that you miss. ”
The subsequent impact of the difficulty in recruiting students is gradually emerging. She found that the child had become "difficult to teach". The kindergarten responds to the requests made by parents, such as when encountering a picky eater, Yang Yue will always be asked to "feed him more". She expressed a different opinion, thinking that children should learn to adapt to social life in kindergarten, but this was rejected. "Because the competition is too fierce, I am afraid that the children will not be able to keep them, so the kindergarten is used to parents and children."
Despite a lot of hard work, last year, Yang Yue's small class, which originally had only more than ten children, still lost four. The principal has implicitly beaten her in public meetings and private WeChat exchanges. Every time a new student comes to her, she must keep this child, and she feels that the invisible pressure on her body is heavier.
Yang Yue with the children Photo courtesy of the narrator
The overall number of students is decreasing, while the number of public kindergartens is increasing. After the liberalization of the two-child policy, starting from 2017, in order to solve the dilemma of "one park is hard to find", the Ministry of Education and other four departments jointly proposed to increase the proportion of inclusive kindergartens (including public and some private kindergartens that enjoy government financial support), and increase the proportion of public kindergartens, in principle, to 50%.
Some teachers have the impression that in just a few years, the same public kindergarten in her district has expanded to the seventh branch. In the context of declining fertility, some students have moved to public kindergartens, and it is more difficult for some private kindergartens to enroll.
Different from public kindergartens, Yang Yue feels that the competitiveness of private kindergartens is reflected in "learning". Parents want their children to learn more, and private kindergartens often offer many special courses to attract students, such as reading, literacy, arithmetic, handicrafts, dancing, etiquette and so on. Later, the situation changed, and after the double reduction policy in 2021, "it is not recommended to let children learn too many things", which further increased the difficulty of enrollment.
In order to survive and attract students, some private kindergartens have to transfer their special courses to the underground. The education department came to check, and the principal heard the wind in advance and asked the teacher to hide the books and study materials.
Ms. Li, who has been running a "bilingual teaching" course in Guangzhou for more than ten years, remembers that at the beginning, no one who knew English about early childhood education could learn English, and she relied entirely on self-study to become one of the early students. After the double reduction policy, it will be difficult to continue.
In 2022, Director Li ended her last contract, and when she contacted the new kindergarten, the salary she gave dropped from five figures to six or seven thousand, and almost all of them were looking for her to "save the scene" - the enrollment situation was very unoptimistic, and the enrollment data given to her by a kindergarten said that there were originally more than 100 children left now, and she inquired with people in the industry only to find that there were actually only more than 20 children.
The shrinking salary, the uncertain future, every bit of it made her feel tired, and she finally decided to leave the industry after 20 years.
The dilemma of choice
Doing kindergarten is a profitable business - Director Li said that before the epidemic, there was such a consensus in the industry. She graduated from a secondary normal school in 2002 and then devoted herself to the early childhood education industry, which in her memory was the first golden age of early childhood education, when the state supported social forces to run schools, "as long as you put a chair and a blackboard, you will be given a license (school license)".
The second wave of enthusiasm was brought about by the liberalization of the two-child policy in 2016. There are many children, at that time to enter her private kindergarten, all need interviews, too naughty children do not accept, unsound children do not record, open two more "baby classes", or full of recruitment, once exceeded the prescribed limit. In order to cope with the education department, the kindergarten will inquire about the inspection time in advance, draw two classes at a time, and take the children out to play in the name of "social practice" to avoid the limelight.
The situation has changed in the wake of the pandemic. Director Li remembers that not long after the outbreak of the epidemic, many parents in Guangzhou who could not do small businesses returned to their hometowns and took away the kindergarten children, and at the worst time, her kindergarten was half empty. Because of the epidemic control, kindergartens kept closing, and they were forced to reduce their education fees and reduce expenditure.
According to a 2022 survey by China's private education-related institutions, 33% of private kindergartens have not collected education fees since the epidemic, and 36% of kindergartens have refunded education fees, which are the main source of income for private kindergartens.
The children of Yangzhi Experimental Kindergarten in Gusu District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, carried out weeding and soil loosening in the "micro garden". Image source: IC photo.
In 2022, he was unwilling to accept the offer of the director with a monthly salary of several thousand yuan, and at the same time, due to the lockdown of the epidemic, Director Li rested at home for more than a month. During that time, most of the other private kindergartens she came into contact with were in similar situations. She was in her forties, re-faced with her career choice, and she was very confused. It seems that the accumulation of her career in kindergarten in the past 20 years, "except for a good attitude", has not provided her with any substantial help for her career change.
She interviewed the cashier, and would rather do a simple job for 3,000 yuan a month than take a few thousand more to be the head of the kindergarten. In the end, it didn't work out, "Maybe people think I'm not the right age, so they didn't want me."
In the end, I found a new job, relying on my English skills. She worked as a ground staff for an airline and worked in the office every day to process system orders and connect with customers. Sometimes she has to work all night in shifts, and she feels that it is much easier than in kindergarten, at least the time after work is her own, and she doesn't have to answer parents' calls at any time in the middle of the night to deal with all kinds of emergencies.
Like Director Li, some private kindergarten teachers are forced to change careers, and some kindergarten teachers have left, which is due to the pressure of the profession itself, high intensity, limited upward space, too low salary, etc., including many teachers in public kindergartens.
Because he likes children, Liu Jiayi took the teacher qualification certificate early, studied a double degree in preschool education, and entered a public kindergarten with enthusiasm. Since her work, in addition to her low income, physical and mental fatigue, she has rarely had time to gather with her friends, and gradually she found that when her friends talk about work and social life, she can no longer understand it, and she can only talk about children.
The identity of a "kindergarten teacher" did not bring her a feeling of respect. At that time, she was still with her ex-boyfriend, and the other party intentionally or unintentionally revealed that "kindergarten teacher" means suitable for marriage. This made Liu Jiayi extremely uncomfortable, she didn't want to be tied up by such an identity. Breaking up with her ex-boyfriend became an opportunity, she left kindergarten and started as a headhunter, an industry willing to accept zero-experience job applicants, and later switched to HR.
After sharing her experience on social media, she received a lot of private messages from kindergarten teachers who wanted to change careers, most of them were confused, they didn't know what they could do if they changed careers, and they didn't seem to have left any career accumulation in kindergarten.
After the closure of the last kindergarten, Yang Yue didn't think about what to do. She wanted not to try another kindergarten, but she was "scared". "Of the six children in that class, three of them are special children, different from normal children, some of them can't understand the words when they are four years old, and some of them don't agree with each other. Now that the fertility rate has dropped, no matter what kind of child you have, you have to recruit any kind of child. ”
I found this sales job in the past, selling bathroom showers. In the face of an unfamiliar industry, she didn't fully understand the price, material, and function, and didn't know how to communicate with customers.
Because of the high work intensity, low salary, limited room for growth and other reasons, the turnover rate of kindergarten teachers has been not low, which is the observation of Director Li. Only one-third of the students who studied education with her back then were still engaged in the preschool education industry, and many of them changed careers early. Another teacher who has been in the industry for more than ten years said that when she first entered this industry, she thought about working for the rest of her life; Now, the industry is even more unable to retain people, and the number of kindergarten teachers has decreased by more than 400,000 in the past two years since 2021. In addition to the difference in the industry environment, compared with when she first worked, the thinking of young people has also changed a lot.
Yang Yue is like this, when she changed careers, she suddenly had a little "regret" emotion, she has been working as a kindergarten teacher since graduation, "I should give up early while the epidemic is going on, do something else, do a sales, sell clothes, I am now twenty-seven, and it is still very difficult to re-enter an industry." Unlike in kindergarten, where you deal with a bunch of children every day, their world is very simple. ”
On May 8, 2024, at Feihong Community Children's Kindergarten in Shushan District, Hefei City, Anhui Province, teachers introduced Smile Day to children. Image source: IC photo.
After leaving
At the height of the epidemic and the kindergarten was closed without any income, Mr. Huang never thought about leaving the industry that he had worked in for more than ten years. At that time, she was the head of a private kindergarten in Shandong, and she got up at 4 a.m. with her teachers to prepare breakfast and lunch, which were delivered to scheduled guests like a delivery person. She thought she would be able to work in kindergarten for the rest of her life.
Last year, the kindergarten failed to hold on and went out of business, and the group considered turning part of its business to elderly care and providing an activity center for the elderly. She persuaded herself that there is an opportunity in front of her, and it is time to challenge it, and at the moment when aging is gradually becoming a trend, pension seems to be more promising than kindergarten. The night before she went to the nursing home, she was still worried about insomnia.
Step out of kindergarten and into the world of aging. The bouncing morning exercise turned into an eight-duanjin and five-bird play; The old people will greet her, you're welcome, come and play together, children will not say such things; There is no need to worry about it anymore, nervously afraid that the child will bump again, in front of these old people, she seems to have become a child, and she has a feeling of entering retirement life early, "quite enjoyable".
Xiao Zhang, who is in Xi'an, has already spent her first winter at the nursing home where she works. For the twilight of life, one winter is enough to experience four or five separations of life and death. The old man, who was still chatting a few days ago, turned his head and disappeared. She has an old man she knows, who is 94 or 5 years old, who has experienced the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and he asks her every day to tell her stories about the past wars, and his ears are very clear. She once thought that the other party was very healthy, but suddenly one day she heard the news of his departure, Xiao Zhang's heart chuckled, empty.
"After more experience, I will look down, as if everyone has that step." These are changing her outlook on life, "I used to think that a long life was the best, but now I don't think it's necessary to live that long, without sin, with dignity, and without burdening my children." ”
As for this job in the pension industry, she doesn't know if she will continue to do it. "I can't guarantee what it will be like in the future, take it one step at a time, and what is good at the moment is the best. Maybe one day when I get married and have children, I will go back to work as a preschool teacher. ”
Occasionally, Principal Li would come out to eat with his friends, they no longer talked about life in the garden, they didn't want to touch each other's pressure, they preferred to talk about happy and happy topics. Everyone is also in their 40s, some people retire early to help in the studio, some people have returned to their families, and some people continue to support in the industry.
In the face of the current situation, friends have not considered changing careers, "There are several kindergarten principal friends around me, who have come out of the previous kindergarten, and it is difficult to find the next one." I didn't change careers because I didn't have a choice, and most of the older kindergarten teachers now have a secondary school degree, I haven't learned English, and I can't use singing and dancing (a lot in my new job). ”
And Director Li didn't want to go back. After leaving kindergarten, she finally had a lot of time to herself, learned the violin again, and had time to cook for the children who were still in school. Getting rid of complicated affairs, she feels relaxed, "The higher the kindergarten work, the higher you go, 90% of it is administrative, and it has nothing to do with children." ”
Twenty years ago, she started the industry with a passion for education, and now, she still likes to be the "king of children". Every week, she would go to the local children's palace to teach English, and even if the income was not high, she returned to her original intention there, and returned to the pure podium.
(Yang Yue and Liu Jiayi are pseudonyms in the article)
Author丨Wei Xiaohan Editor丨Wang Coral Source丨The text is reprinted from [Polar Day Studio], pay attention to see more stories
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