Pre-school education is also an important social good as an important component of the basic and national education systems. Our early childhood education is lacking in many ways relative to the developed countries, mainly as a result of insufficient investment in education and a severe shortage of educational resources (especially for the needs of young children). Second, the level of gardening is low, the teaching staff is inadequate and the majority of young children in the park do not enjoy relatively high-quality resources. With the liberalization of the “two-child” policy, childcare has become a topical issue for the public. The results of the ndc's 2015 survey of fertility aspirations show that 74. 5 per cent, 61. 1 per cent and 60. 5 per cent, respectively, of those who do not wish to have a second child because of financial burdens, excessive effort and neglect. Thus, addressing the issue of childcare, while achieving a higher level of quality education that is equitable and accessible to all, will go some way towards improving fertility rates。
Current problems in pre-school education
(i) severe under-resourced, under-invested and low level of gardening
First, pre-school teachers are higher than teachers (students/teachers). At the end of 2015, there were 22. 37 million kindergartens in the country, 6,273. 6 thousand children enrolled and in them, and 2. 33. 1 million kindergarten directors and teachers. According to the ministry of education, the ratio of pre-school teachers in china in 2015 was 19. 9, which is higher than in most developed countries. In many of the world's high-welfare countries, such as iceland and new zealand, there are fewer than five students and teachers in pre-school education, which shows that there is still a large gap between pre-school education and modern education in the international developed countries。
Second, the loss of early childhood teachers is more acute, and there is a serious shortage of professional early childhood teachers. Studies have found that early childhood teachers work under greater pressure but with lower income levels. In recent years, there has been a shortage of teachers at all levels and in all types of kindergartens throughout the country. In particular, there has been a greater loss of day-care centres, where teachers are not recruited for their work, and where subsidies and fees are not well reflected in the promotion of teachers ' treatment。
According to the results of michaels' survey of chinese graduates of the vocational categories “early childhood” and “pre-school education” in 2016, the main reason why around 70 per cent of university students are not satisfied with the industry is that they consider themselves to be underpaid. There is currently a shortage of “specialized” teachers in our municipal kindergarten classes. According to a survey, only 39 per cent of kindergarten teachers aged 0-3 have received short-term training in the areas of nursing, baby-career vocational skills assessment, tours, internships, etc. It is indicated that most of the foster teachers do not receive professional training in child-care prior to admission。
Thirdly, there is less investment in pre-school education. China's yearbook of education and yearbook of education funding were published. In 2014, a total of 17,58. 8 billion yuan was spent on kindergarten education, or 5. 79 per cent of the total investment in education ($336. 5 billion). In contrast, the state budget for education devotes only 3. 52 per cent to kindergartens. Today, developed countries in europe have spent 8-10 per cent on early childhood education. At present, china's investment in education is concentrated mainly in compulsory education (i. E. Primary and secondary education) (about 50 per cent), with very little investment in pre-school education, making it difficult to cope with the educational burden placed on parents by excessive costs。
Fourth, resources for quality preschool education remain relatively scarce. Although the current shortage of resources for pre-school education has been effectively alleviated, it should be noted that there is still a relative lack of resources for quality pre-school education. As of the end of 2015, there were 1,464,000 kindergartens in china, or 65 per cent of all kindergartens. Many private day-care centres are too expensive, and the quality of teachers and childcare does not meet the expectations of parents. The survey found that many private kindergartens lacked experienced parenting teachers and that teachers had little time to deal with problems such as children fighting for toys and venues because of their resource constraints. Although the number of public kindergartens is insufficient, the quality of services needs to be improved. According to incomplete statistics, from 2010 to the present, there have been more than 60 cases of child abuse or suspected child abuse in juvenile institutions that have come to light through the media and the internet. Most of the institutions involved are private kindergartens or nurseries, early-schools, and many of them are under-qualified or undocumented。
(ii) severe shortage of childcare services to meet the needs of young children in school
There is a serious shortage of childcare services in our country, with only 4 per cent of children aged 0-3 years in all types of institutions, well below 50 per cent in some developed countries. In the chinese family, grandfathers were responsible for a great deal of care for their grandchildren. According to the survey, about 80 per cent of infants and young children in the beijing region are cared for by their ancestors. However, there is a strong demand for childcare services due to the fact that many parents are forced to work during the day, owing to the fact that some of their ancestors have not yet retired (or will be delayed), lack of physical strength, lack of adaptation to urban life and overcrowding。
With the liberalization of the “two-child” policy, the demand for young children under three years of age will grow further, while only a few kindergartens in china currently offer small classes (suitable for children under two-three years of age), far from meeting their needs, and few childcare services for children under two years of age。
According to the statistics bulletin on the development of health and family planning in china for 2016, published recently by the national health and family planning commission, between 2003 and 2013 china's birth population fluctuated at or below 16 million. In 2016, the number of births exceeded 17. 86 million, the fertility level increased to more than 1. 7 and the proportion of children and above exceeded 45 per cent. The deputy director of the national commission on health and family planning, wang ba'an, announced at a comprehensive press conference for the two children that, with the implementation of a comprehensive policy for the two children, an average of 3 million new births could occur each year. According to this calculation, the number of children of pre-school age will increase by about 15 million in 2021, while the gap between kindergarten teachers and caregivers is expected to be about 3 million。
There are also many problems in the quality of infant and early childhood education services in these limited childcare facilities. As a result of the kindergarten work protocol, children of kindergarten age are aged 3-6 (or 7 years). Thus, collective institutions for children up to the age of two or three are mainly nurseries. At present, the management of institutions in the 0-3 age group is essentially a market-based mode of operation, and the larger proportion of existing parent-child institutions is in the business sphere and individual behaviour, with no uniform policy or regulation。
Moreover, day-care centres and kindergartens have long been separate, both in institutions and in educational concepts and objectives. Children aged 0-3 years are placed in day-care centres under the management of the health sector, and children aged 3-6 years are placed in kindergartens under the management of the education sector. This inconsistent management has resulted in the lack of continuity and integrity of pre-school education and the continued segregation of children aged 0-3 years。
The survey also found a lack of evaluation criteria for the basic characteristics and patterns of physical and mental development of infants and young children aged 0-3 years in early childhood institutions, a lack of qualified and highly specialized teaching staff, and the need for appropriate activity materials, reference materials and basic environments and facilities. Most of the 0-3-year-old care activities carried out by early childhood institutions attempt to migrate the development and educational experiences of children aged 3-6 years, not only with little or even no effect, but also with no effect, contrary to the natural growth patterns of infants and young children. Many respondents considered that the greatest difficulties in implementing infant and early childhood education services were the lack of guidance from professional theorists (200 in this regard), the lack of trained teaching staff (185), inadequate hardware (138), the lack of an activity curriculum suitable for children aged 0-3 (133) and theoretical support (95)。
Suggested improvements
“assisting on shared development and investing in people's well-being” is an important planning deployment for people's lives in the “13th and 5th century” countries, and education is the most relevant and realistic interest of the people in the public service system. The state emphasizes that the focus will be on improving quality, with a focus on promoting equity, while improving the quality of education, the key link is “achieving inclusion and filling the gap”. The national programme for medium- and long-term education reform and development (2010-2020) also began with the “quality education for all” aimed at achieving a higher level of equitable quality education for all. Therefore, in an effort to achieve the strategic deployment of “quality inclusive education” in the 13th and 5th period, including universal 15-year education and the implementation of standardized school construction, this report will provide recommendations for the development of pre-school education from the perspective of the completion of the education slab and the expansion of inclusive sex education。
First, to increase the government's commitment to pre-school education in order to effectively improve the resource constraints and quality problems arising from insufficient funding. Compared to the developed european countries, our investment in early childhood education is quite inadequate, and the government needs to increase its investment in pre-school education and expand the pool of early childhood teachers, with a focus on the efficiency of pre-school funding, which can be considered, first, in the shift from subsidized enterprises to subsidized individual young teachers, or in the creation of public funds, as in brazil, to raise the level of well-being of early childhood teachers and attract a stable pool of high-quality young teachers, thereby significantly reducing the pupil-teacher ratio and narrowing the gap with developed western countries。
Second, to improve the mechanisms for ensuring the operation of pre-school education, to speed up the development of a public-funded financial allocation standard for students in public kindergartens and a general financial subsidy for pupils in inclusive private kindergartens, to implement social security for teachers who are not working in early childhood, in accordance with the law, and to gradually increase the salary level for teachers who are not working in early childhood. Thirdly, it will strengthen the internalization of kindergartens, actively promote the development of the kindergarten curriculum, promote the standard allocation of all kindergartens to the full range of teaching staff, and gradually achieve more than 95 per cent of full-time teachers holding kindergarten teacher qualifications。
In response to peaks in school enrolment, the government should encourage and support social forces to organize private kindergartens offering inclusive services in many forms. It is also possible to purchase pre-school education services from qualified private kindergartens, kindergartens run by enterprises and other organizations, in parallel with the construction of public-interest inclusive kindergartens, and to further expand the coverage of public-interest inclusive kindergartens, while at the same time further meeting the needs of children for easy access and proximity. It is also important to increase the coverage of inclusive pre-school education in the public interest, taking into account the need to ensure the quality of education, to establish a public funding system for kindergarten students, and to ensure that the level of funding effectively discourages the expansion of private kindergartens。
In improving the quality of kindergarten or nursery teaching, a rigorous pre-primary education assessment system can be developed in the light of the experience of developed countries, such as the united kingdom-established early childhood care standard adjustment. The competent authorities shall have a uniform standard for assessing the qualifications of kindergartens or nurseries or for issuing relevant documents for the opening of a business. For example, there is a clear requirement for software and hardware such as pedagogy, teacher-student ratio, playgrounds, sanitary fire management, teacher requirements, etc., and for non-qualified kindergartens or nurseries to be corrected for a limited period of time, and to be banned if they do not meet the requirements。
Second, efforts have been made to develop a system of childcare services for children aged 0-3 years in urban areas and to promote “integrated childcare”. The national programme for the reform and development of medium- and long-term education, published in 2010, clearly states that “priority is given to early childhood education for children aged 0-3 years”. Our research in this area is also at an initial stage, where we can draw on and learn from the successful experience of the system of child-care services abroad and of child-care bridging activities。
At present, many developed countries and regions of the world are paying great attention to the upbringing of infants and young children aged 0-3 years. (a) statistics show that denmark is currently the country with the highest level of early care coverage between the ages of 0 and 3, and that almost 60 per cent of children aged 6 months and 3 years are able to participate in the early childhood education and care (early childeducation and care) programme; in finland and sweden, about 50 per cent of children aged 1-2 years are able to participate in the programme; in belgium, approximately 30 per cent of children aged 3 months-3 years were able to participate in the programme. In france, between 22 and 35 per cent of children attend nurseries at the age of 2 and 98 per cent before the age of 3。
Immediately after obama's admission to the white house, the united states released its comprehensive 0-5 year-old education plan, which aims to invest $10 billion annually by the federal government in early childhood and parents to provide integrated early education and care services for children. United states nurseries are known as “day care”, mostly privately run. Kindergartens are divided into large classes (2-3 years), middle classes (1-2 years) and small classes (1 month-1 years), each with about 15 children. The ratio of teachers to children is 1:6 in the class, 1:5 in the class and about 1:4 in the class. Pre-school education in japan is carried out separately from childcare and kindergarten, which are established under the child welfare act and can be applied for from a child of two months to a child who is not enrolled in school, which is approved by the government and admitted to school; the kindergarten is similar to the kindergarten in my country, which mainly accommodates children over three years of age。
In addition to learning from the experience of child-care services abroad, china should, in accordance with national conditions, establish day-care centres in all their forms, encourage the establishment of small classes in day-care centres where conditions exist, and provide policy preferences and support to meet the needs of various groups of the population in order to better respond to the pressures of the “two children” policy. The smallest number of children enrolled in day-care centres can be children up to the age of 3 years. In management, classes may be divided according to the age of the child or mixed age. Childcare centres in australia are available for study and flexible day-care hours (e. G. Allowing some children to attend day-care classes from 7 a. M. To 7 p. M., some children from 8 a. M. To 5 p. M., and some children from 9 a. M. To 4 p. M. In day-care classes) on a demand-driven basis, thus meeting the needs of different parents for day-care。
At the same time, the relevant government departments should be fully integrated, with clear responsibilities, and strengthen regional cooperation for the integration of pre-school education, while setting appropriate targets for children of different ages. While emphasis is placed on the integration of early childhood care, after all, the age of childcare is 0-3 years and the age of attendance at kindergarten is 3-6 years. The physical and mental characteristics of students at these two ages differ, and different educational goals are set at different stages to accommodate young children at each age. In addition, the goal of integration of young children requires continuity. Although age is of a phased nature, each age group is continuous, and physical and mental changes are taking place gradually, without mutations overnight。
Thus, there is also a need for continuity and for no apparent disconnection between the goals of early childhood. In the course of teaching children aged 0-3 and 3-6, many of them now follow a more general approach to education, which is not tailored to their own characteristics. Secondary-level and higher-level institutions should target market demand, increase the number of education subjects in the 0-3 age group, and provide courses in pre-3-year-old education, pre-3-year-old psychology, pre-3-year-old health and pre-3-year-old education skills。
Thirdly, the legal system for the protection of children should be strengthened and improved, and families, schools and social organizations should be encouraged to work together to regulate it. According to wang zhenyu, china is in a social transition and has many problems in the management of children, such as more traditional institutional set-up and insufficient government implementation. China's current legislation on children consists mainly of the law on the protection of minors, the law on the protection of the rights and interests of women and children, the law on the prevention of juvenile delinquency and the law on compulsory education. These legislations, while relevant to the protection of children, are not systematic and lack implementing regulations. Moreover, owing to the current lack of a welfare system in china, child protection cannot be truly realized. Early childhood protection requires, in addition to national legislation, the responsibility of the family, schools, society, etc。
In the interior, a comprehensive system of healthy interaction between the government and civil society organizations has not yet been established in terms of child services and assistance. In hong kong, in addition to a comprehensive and well-established child protection legal system, social organizations are more concerned and protective of children. In hong kong, child protection laws and regulations are very well developed, including the protection of children and adolescents ordinance, the education ordinance and the abduction and custody of children ordinance. In addition to a well-established legal protection system, there are a number of social organizations (such as the hong kong society for the prevention of child abuse and the society for the welfare of the family) that support and protect the healthy development and rights of children. The mainland may therefore wish to learn from the strengths of hong kong's child protection system。
