By Zhao Chen, China Development Research Foundation

Research Report, No.143, 2018 (Total 5418) 2018-9-3

Abstract: China Development Research Foundation has launched a program to build kindergartens for every village in Ledu District of Haidong City, Qinghai Province since 2009, building kindergartens in villages with more than five children of three to six years old and providing high-quality and free pre-school education to children in the poor villages. The Foundation has traced children who have benefited from the program in Ledu District in a long term and conducted research on mechanisms of improving children’s learning abilities in a sustainable manner. Initial research findings show that learning abilities of 61.1 percent of children in the village kindergartens have been remarkably improved, whose grades have steadily stood in the first 40 percent students in primary schools providing compulsory education across the district. However, the learning abilities of 14.1 percent of children participating in the village kindergarten program have made no prominent improvement, most of whom are from disadvantaged families. The report aims to steadily explore approaches to improving the learning abilities and situation of those children.

Key words: village kindergartens, kindergarten provision for every village, learning ability improvement, disadvantaged children