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Put rural children first

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-26 14:53

More than 90 percent of 3,000 people surveyed online believe that charges for preschool education are too high. But this is far from where the real problem lies with such education.

Figures provided by a deputy to the National People's Congress suggest that more than 60 percent of rural children do not have access to kindergartens or nursery education.

While many urbanites complain that too much of their income is spent on kindergarten fees, most of their rural counterparts still consider such facilities a luxury.

Annual charges for one child can be as high as around 50,000 yuan ($7,200) at some kindergartens in cities. In addition to the tuition fees, some public kindergartens ask for a sum of money as financial support. We need detailed rules on how kindergartens should charge their clients.

Yet, as far as preschool education is concerned on a national basis, what we urgently need is the balanced distribution of such education resources among both urban and rural residents.

When State-owned enterprises dominated the economy three decades ago,

kindergartens or nursery schools were part of the welfare provided to employees of these enterprises or institutions. As a matter of fact, most employees sent their children to kindergartens attached to their workplaces.

Rural children had no access to such education then.

Since then, fees for kindergartens or nursery schools have increased many times both for public and private ones.

Some parents choose to send their kids to expensive private kindergartens as they fear their children will otherwise not get a quality education. The fees charged by private kindergartens are adjusted naturally by market demand, and there is no reason for the government to set them.

The government does need to pay more attention to preschool education. And such attention and financial input should go to the vast rural areas first, where such education is almost a blank that needs to be filled.

Rural migrant workers are sometimes accused of lacking civility and manners. But we need to look at the disparity between the education urbanities get and the education they receive. It is unfair to look down upon them for their improper manners when they do not start at the same point in terms of education.

So if our government draws up any plan to increase its investment in preschool education, the money should be used to provide rural children with access to such education first.