Community-affiliated kindergartens to better serve public good: official

BEIJING - China will further address problems concerning kindergartens affiliated to urban residential communities, to ensure they better serve the public good, according to an official with the Ministry of Education (MOE) Friday.

Lyu Yugang, head of the MOE's basic education department, said at a news briefing that authorities have surveyed 42,100 urban residential communities nationwide and found that 18,400 kindergartens have problems in properly carrying out a previous State Council directive on improving the country's preschool education.

According to the document, kindergartens affiliated to urban communities should be placed under government planning with their construction conducted in accordance with local planning and population scale.

It also stressed that such facilities should better serve the public good rather than operate for profit, requiring some of them to be handed over to local education authorities or be turned into non-profit enterprises.

Lyu said the survey found that 11,500 kindergartens have not been properly handed over.

He pledged greater efforts in building new institutions for communities without sufficient nursery services.