Gansu promotes pre-school education to support targeted poverty reduction

As part of their ongoing commitment to reducing poverty in Gansu province, authorities there have shifted their attention towards promoting pre-school education, among other things.

The northwestern province is less developed compared to many provinces in East China, partly because its resources to develop its pre-school education are limited.

Official statistics reveal that only 42 percent of kids received pre-school education in 2011, resulting in many places in the province being trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and resource limitation.

There’s no doubt that Gansu’s has made substantial efforts to reduce poverty throughout the province. If the country’s targeted poverty alleviation strategy in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) is realized, poverty will be a thing of the past in China by 2020.

Following country’s development plan, Gansu has decided to give priority to pre-school education development, given that poverty is not just an economic issue.

In 2015, Gansu raised funds of 1.60 billion yuan ($230 million) to support the construction of new kindergartens there. A total of 1,052 kindergartens have been constructed - including 113 bilingual kindergartens - largely alleviating the shortage of education resources.

Gansu Party chief Wang Sanyun pointed out that developing pre-school education in rural areas can enable parents to focus more of their time on creating wealth.

Edited by Jacob Hooson