More public kindergartens for stranded kids

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-25 10:37

Chaoyang district education commission has announced it will build 20 public kindergartens in the next five years to host 5,000 children, the Beijing Youth Daily reported yesterday.

An official surnamed Ye with the commission told METRO yesterday the plan is in its initial stage.

The news follows a statement from Haidian district last week that it would build 13 new public kindergartens in five years, bringing the total number in the area to 37. More than 3,000 children will attend its new facilities.

The plans of the two districts are only part of the city's comprehensive goal to provide affordable quality education to kindergarten children in the current baby boom.

Xian Lianping, deputy director of the municipal education commission, said in October that to address a lack in affordable kindergartens, the city will build 120 new public kindergartens in Beijing, Beijing Daily reported.

Beijing witnessed a huge baby boom in 2007 and 2008 because it was both the Chinese year of the pig and the time of Olympics, regarded as an auspicious time to have a baby.

The number of babies born in those two years surpassed 133,000 each year. This was a dramatic increase from the 1996-2006 period, when the number of new babies did not top 98,000 per year, the Beijing municipal bureau of statistics said.

A mother, surnamed Xu, of a two-year-old girl told METRO she hasn't been able to find her daughter a kindergarten.

Xu said she had sold her new three-bedroom apartment outside the North Fifth Ring Road to buy an older two-bedroom apartment within the North Fourth Ring Road because it has access to good public kindergartens and elementary schools.

"It definitely lowered my living standard, but I have no choice if I want my child to go to a good kindergarten," she said.

"I heard how the Beijing government will build more kindergartens in the future, but it won't solve my dilemma."

Xu said she had recently contacted five kindergartens and was told that none had vacancies.

"I offered to pay sponsorship fees but was informed that this was standard practice and wouldn't guarantee a place for my child," she said.

Xu estimated from her calls that the average sponsorship fee is around 20,000 yuan per year for a three-year kindergarten program.

A teacher surnamed Liu from Anhuali No 2 Kindergarten said they enroll 100 children a year but get applications from more than 200.

"Even if you apply six months ahead of the semester, a parent can't secure a position for their child," she said.

A teacher surnamed Wang from the privately owned Golden Cradle Kindergarten, a chain with eight campuses in Beijing, said they are seeing too many applicants for limited spaces due to sparse public alternatives.

"Although our single semester tuition fee is 23,000 yuan, more than double the cost of public schools, some parents still give tuition deposits six months ahead of the start of the school semester," she said.

Kindergartens in Beijing use a catchment area policy. By 2008, there were 1,266 kindergartens, private and public combined, accommodating about 227,000 students, the Beijing municipal commission of education website reported.