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Text | Nanjing University Journalism and Communication Future Editorial Department·Verification Record

Mao Ziye Ren Mingxuan

Map | Zhou Zijia and Li Xinyi

Editor | Ke Xinyu Ren Mingxuan

Typesetting | Mao Ziye

On July 22, 2024, the Education and Sports Bureau of Guixi City, Jiangxi Province officially announced that six local kindergartens had stopped operating due to demolition and reduced student enrollment, and would no longer enroll students from July 2024. The closure of kindergartens in batches is not an isolated case. Many cities have previously issued documents to close kindergartens. For example, the Education Bureau of Linquan County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province, issued an announcement in August 2023 that 50 local private kindergartens had terminated operations, of which 12 kindergartens took the initiative to apply for termination of operations, and 38 kindergartens had no actual enrollment or school operations. In November of the same year, Haikou City, Hainan Province issued a notice announcing that a total of 33 private kindergartens in four districts had been closed.

As a wave of kindergarten closures sweeps across the country, the Verification Record has sorted out the current status of early childhood education across the country and kindergartens in Nanjing.

In recent years, the number of births in my country has continued to decline. In 2022, the national population experienced its first negative growth in 61 years. The sharp drop in the number of newborns has had a huge impact on the education industry.Among them, kindergartens were the first to suffer from the impact of student enrollment.Data from the Ministry of Education show that in 2020, the number of children in kindergartens nationwide was 48.1826 million, reaching a peak in the past five years, and preschool education has been basically universal. However, after 2020, the number of children in preschool education nationwide began to decline year by year. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics [1], in 2023, there were only 40.9298 million children in preschool education, a decrease of 11.55% from 2022.

The decrease in the number of children in kindergartens has triggered a wave of kindergarten closures.The number of kindergartens fell for the first time in 2022 to 289,200, a decrease of 1.9% from the previous year. In 2023, the number of kindergartens decreased by another 5.4% from the previous year, the lowest in the past five years.

Prior to this, it was difficult to find a place in a public kindergarten, and the admission threshold was high[2]. According to China Newsweek, in Shenzhen, for example, both parents were required to have Shenzhen hukou and submit proof of property ownership. After 2021, some places saw difficulty in recruiting students for private kindergartens and failure to recruit enough students for public kindergartens.Nowadays, many kindergartens have begun to lower their admission requirements.Take Linyi, Shandong as an example. In 2023, local public kindergartens vigorously carried out recruitment publicity activities, such as offering various special courses and physical and intelligence courses as soon as students sign up. Private kindergartens are engaged in price wars. The childcare and education fees of inclusive private kindergartens used to be 1,120 yuan per month, but now they have launched various slogans such as "pay 100 yuan to get 300 yuan, pay 200 yuan to get 1,000 yuan". [2] (Inclusive kindergartens refer to kindergartens that charge childcare and accommodation fees at the government guidance price, including kindergartens run by education departments, public kindergartens run by other departments, and inclusive private kindergartens. Inclusive private kindergartens mean that although they are privately run, the fees charged are inclusive.)

Under the influence of the shutdown trend,The preschool education teacher industry has also been impacted to a certain extent.After reaching a peak of 3.2442 million in 2022, the number of full-time preschool teachers nationwide fell to 3.0737 million in 2023, a decrease of 5.5%.

Looking at the current situation of early childhood education across the country, the number of kindergartens, the number of children in kindergartens, and the number of preschool teachers are all on a downward trend, which shows that the wave of kindergarten closures has swept across the country. From "it's hard to find a kindergarten" to "it's hard to find a child".

Nanjing has always been at the forefront of early childhood education initiatives.In 2022, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China published an article titled “Nanjing: Preschool education has evolved from ‘children are well educated’ to ‘children are well educated’”[3]. The article concluded that Nanjing had begun to promoteThree projects: kindergarten increment project, excellence project, and private welfare kindergarten promotion project，In ten years, the number of kindergartens has increased from 578 to thousands, and the coverage rate of universal kindergartens has increased to 89.2%, effectively solving the people's livelihood problems such as the difficulty and high cost of kindergarten admission for young children in Nanjing.

But now,Nanjing is also facing the problem of kindergartens being closed.。Before 2021, the number of young children in Nanjing increased year by year, but the growth rate slowed down between 2020 and 2021. After reaching a peak of 283,382 in 2021, the number of kindergarten students in Nanjing began to decline.

In 2023, the number of kindergarten students in Nanjing has dropped to 289,200, a decrease of nearly one-tenth from the previous year, the lowest in the past five years.

The impact of the number of children in kindergartens on the number of kindergartens has a certain lag.The number of kindergartens in Nanjing is still growing until 2022, but the growth rate is gradually slowing down to only 1.16%. The number of newly added kindergartens has also dropped from 48 in 2018 to 12.

According to the announcement released by the Nanjing Statistics Bureau in 2024, the number of kindergartens in Nanjing has been reduced to 1,031 in 2023. The changes in private kindergartens fluctuated greatly. After the approval of kindergartens in 2023, there were 386 kindergartens that could enroll students and operate normally, which was a significant decrease compared with 2022.

The verification record also investigated the online rumor that 22 private kindergartens in Nanjing were closed in 2023, and found that the information was true.The results of the annual inspection and evaluation of the quality of private kindergartens in Nanjing released by the Nanjing Municipal Education Bureau [4] showed that a total of 22 private kindergartens were closed due to failure to meet the approval requirements of the education department.

The Verification Record collected information and called kindergartens, contacted the heads of 9 kindergartens, and learned the reasons for the closure of some kindergartens. Among them, Nanjing Henglong Garden and Nanjing Qinhuai Golden Childhood Kindergarten clearly stated that they were closed due toInsufficient studentsIn addition, the verification record found through searching online information that the kindergarten that was closed hadThe facilities and venues are not in compliance with regulations, and the legal person has financial disputesFor example, the once famous Nanjing Meiqiao Kindergarten, whose common legal person with Jiangbei New District Xuri Kindergarten, Zhang Hezeng, once reported on the Internet that the actual controller of the kindergarten had been making money through the kindergarten for a long time and privately transferring tuition fees. In the same year, the kindergarten appeared on the list of kindergartens to be closed in 2023 due to failure in the annual review.

But the closure of kindergartens does not only have negative implications. The government has actively taken other measures to promote the development of preschool education.According to a notice issued by the Nanjing Municipal People's Government[5], 30 new kindergartens will be built, renovated or expanded in the city by 2023, adding more than 10,000 public school places, which will help children get better quality preschool education. In addition, some closed kindergartens did not disappear, but were reorganized and merged with other public kindergartens. For example, Nanjing Jinling Shangfu Kindergarten was reorganized into the international branch of the public kindergarten Nanjing No. 1 Kindergarten after it was closed.

Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, also said that if we take the opportunity of closing down a large number of private kindergartens that are of low quality and do not comply with regulations to improve kindergarten construction standards and promote the construction of "small kindergartens and small classes",It will help optimize the allocation of preschool education resources and improve the quality of education[6]。

In recent years, the number of births in my country has continued to decline, and the decrease in the number of children in kindergartens has triggered a wave of kindergarten closures. Under the influence of the closure wave, the preschool education teacher industry has also been impacted to a certain extent. The preschool education industry in Nanjing has also been impacted by this wave. After verification, the information that 22 private kindergartens in Nanjing were closed in 2023 is true.

But the reduction in the number of kindergartens does not only have negative implications. The rectification and merger of some closed kindergartens with public kindergartens will help improve the quality of preschool education.

In general, from Nanjing to the whole country, from preschool education to other stages of education, future population changes may bring more opportunities and challenges.

This article was first published in "Nuclear Record"

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