See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283260714

Early Childhood Education in China

Chapter · January 2007

CITATION READS

1 836

1 author:

Xin Zhou
East China Normal University
17 PUBLICATIONS 63 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Mathematics monitoring indicater system for children aged 5-6 View project

Diagnosis and intervention for math learning difficulty in 5-6 year-olds View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Xin Zhou on 27 October 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

In Rebecca S. New &Moncrieff Cochran (Edits). Early Childhood Education: An International
Encyclopedia(pp. 971-976)‚ CT: Greenwood Group.

Early Childhood Education in China

Xin Zhou, Ed. D

Introduction

Located in Eastern Asia, People’s Republic of China is the most populous

country in the world, with a population of 1.3 billion. There are 56 ethnic groups in

the nation, with the Han making up about 92% of the population and other ethnic

groups including the Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi,

and Korean. Both ethnic languages and the official language of mandarin are used

in ethnic areas. In the last few decades, the nation has made great progress in

economic development, especially since 1978 when the country began to adapt an

open door policy and market-oriented economic development. As a result of this

economic growth, living standards have improved dramatically in the past ten years

for much of the population, However, in 2002, 5% of the population was still

below the national poverty line and the developmental gap between the urban and

rural areas was great. Currently, the number of children aged 0-6 is about 99.3 million,

8.14 % of the total population. Among the child population, more than 50% are less

than three years of age. More than 60% of these children live in rural areas.

After the Communist Party took over mainland China, gender equity was on

the government’s working agenda. Mothers were encouraged by the government to

join the workforce, leading to the care of the children as a social issue. The Ministry

of Education issued the first program regulation titled Kindergarten Provisional

Operation Regulation (Initial) in 1952. It specified that “the purpose of the early

childhood program is to ensure that children have a healthy physical and mental

development upon entering the elementary school; meanwhile the program is to

relieve the burden of child care from mothers, so mothers are able to have the time to

participate in political, productive and educational activities”. The double purposes of

the early childhood program have not been changed in the past five decades, while the

fostering of the development of children has been expanded to include the

development of physical, intellectual, social and emotional, and aesthetic.

A good beginning will provide an important foundation for children’s lifetime

development and this idea has been well accepted by the policy makers in the

government since 1990s. In order to provide optimal conditions for children’s

learning and development, important policies have been made and implemented. In

the two versions of the same government document titled Chinese Children

Development Guideline (1990s & 2001-2010), the purpose of early childhood

development is related to the nation’s economical and social progress, and is tied to

the improvement of the quality of human resources in the nation. Although many

specific goals have been established for the improvement of children’s survival

conditions in rural areas in this document, the goal for providing equal education and

universal access to all children is not mentioned. In recent years, the idea of equal

education has been discussed primarily in the sector of compulsory education, and not

yet in early childhood education.

Key Historic Figures

Xingzhi Dao (1891-1946) established the first early childhood program for

farmers and factory workers in Nanjing and Shanghai in the 1920s. After Dao studied

with Dewey in the United States in 1910s, he returned to China to make great efforts

for poor families and their children. He proposed that children’s education should

start before the age of six and that education should encourage children to employ

both hands and minds; to learn by doing. He was also an advocate for the education of

creativity.

Xuemen Zhang (1891-1973) was a well-known child educator in North China and

Taiwan. He worked with children as an ordinary teacher for many years. In his

behavioral curriculum, he proposed that curriculum is experience and life is education

for children.

Heqin Chen (1892-1982) was a well-known child psychologist and child educator.

He studied psychology and pedagogy at Columbia University in the United States

with Kilpatrick early in the 20th Century. After returning to China, he worked in

Nanjing Normal University as a professor of child psychology and education. Chen

was the founder of the first experimental child education center Gulou Kindergarten

in Nanjing, and also established the first public early childhood education teacher

training school in the early 1940s in Jiangxi province. He is the first researcher to

study children’s psychological development in China. The curriculum research he

conducted in Nanjing provided a solid foundation for the establishment of the first

Kindergarten Curriculum Standard in China. He proposed the theory of “Life

Education”, which emphasized: 1) the goal of the education as to foster a good

Chinese citizen; 2) use of the nature and the social life as the resource of the

curriculum; 3) the principle for teaching young children as “to learn by doing, to teach

by doing and to make progress by doing.”

A Brief Sociology of Childhood in China

Chinese children’s position in society has been changing in the last few decades.

Historically, children did not have many rights in a Chinese family. They were treated not as

independent persons, but instead as the personal property of adults. Young children, particularly

girls, could be killed at birth, abandoned, sold, or sent as a gift to relatives. Even as adults they

usually did not have rights equal to the older adults in the family until they had a family of their

own. This situation has been changing since early 1950s, following the Communist Party

take-over of the country. However, in many rural areas today, girls may still not be treated equally

with boys in terms of rights and position in the family.

The popular metaphor “children are flowers of the country, the future of the country” has

been used to describe Chinese children. The idea that children should have special protection

and care is not only written into the constitution but broadly accepted in Chinese society. During

the past few decades, the conditions for the survival and development of Chinese children have

been improving steadily. For example, the mortality for children under the age of five has

decreased from 225 per 1,000 births in 1960 to 36 per 1,000 births in 2001; the infant mortality

has decreased to 30 per 1,000 births. In 1991, the People’s Congress passed the Young Citizen

Protection Law, which specifies the purpose, principles and responsibilities for the protection for

children. In the same year, China signed The Convention on the Rights of the Child. In order to
achieve the child protection goals an important government document was issued in 1992, titled

Chinese Children Development Guideline in the 1990s. The document made children a top priority.

Ten specific goals for child survival, protection, development and education were established. In

2001, the State Council Women and Children Commission declared that almost all the goals

proposed in that guideline have been reached. A new Chinese Children Development Guideline for

2001-2010 has just been released, which proposes specific goals and implementation strategies in

four areas: health, education, legal protection, and the environment.

However, changing people’s perspective on children’s rights in family life has

been relatively slow, particularly in rural areas. Family planning policy may have

made a positive change for children’s position in the family. Because of the

pressure of population growth on the nation, the government initially encouraged and

then (starting in 1979) enforced the policy of one child per family. As a result, over

90% of families in urban areas today have only one child. Needless to say, the only

child in the family has been able to receive more care and have a better education.

Parents invest more money and time in their only child’s health and education. In

the family, the only child experiences the situation called “4-2-1 Syndrome”, four

grandparents and two parents give their love and attention to the single child. One

result has been over protection and not enough discipline for the child in some

families. It is also possible that the change in children’s position within the family

may be reflected more in the distribution of attention and resources to the child, and

not so much in respect for the child’s rights. For example, parents and grandparents

usually have very high expectations for the child’s academic achievements. Many
children in the urban areas are now expected to take extra curricular classes at an

early age, such as English, computer, music and visual arts, etc. These children and

their parents are often busy during the weekends, running from one training class to

the other. In many cases, children’s own interests and choices are not considered

and respected.

The Purposes of Early Childhood Education Policies

The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and the National Women’s

Federation play important roles in formulating the national policies for the

development and education of young children. The purposes of the policies are to: 1)

protect young children and mothers by improving their living conditions and the

quality of service; 2) set up the national program and curriculum standard and to

improve the quality of early childhood education; 3) coordinate the administration and

management for early childhood education programs between different social sectors

at the national, provincial and local government levels; 4) improve teacher training

and professional development system; 5) provide better support and child care service

to families and parents, and 6) provide support for the development of the early

childhood education program in undeveloped areas.

Extent of Provision

Up to three years of age, the majority of Chinese children are usually cared for at

home by grandparents, other relatives or a hired nanny. In some cases, if family

resources allow, the mother may quit her job for few years to take care of the child.

Before the mid 1990s, many work places provided child care services for their
workers. Many mothers returned to work after 60 days of maternal leave (the current

policy allows for at least 90 days of paid maternal leave) and left their child in the

on-site program. However, in recent years the number of employer-based services

has been decreasing, because many state owned businesses have been sold to private

individuals, resulting in closure of some of the child care services. In urban areas, at

the age of one year and half, some children go to kindergartens that provide toddler

programs, while others go to private home day care. A high percentage of children

stay home until age three. In some urban areas these children may go to early

childhood education centers or stations for some parent-child educational activities.

The percentage of children who enrolled in regular education programs for children

before three in urban areas is usually less than 20%. The early childhood education

service for children aged 0-3 is not available in rural areas.

At the age of three, the majority of the children in urban areas attend

kindergartens for three years of early childhood education. Most of these programs

provide full-day services and some also provide a boarding program. In urban areas

the percentage of the children enrolled in early childhood programs is over 90%,

while in rural areas it is only 39%. In 2002 there were 11.2 million kindergartens in

China, serving 20.36 million children.

Program Types

The most popular type of kindergarten program is called You Er Yuan. This is

usually a full day program for children aged 3-6, or in some areas age 5 only and age

6 only. The school day lasts from 7:30am to 5:00 pm. Children either have one
meal and two snacks or three meals and two snacks in the center each day. Parents

are responsible for paying the cost of the food. In recent years, the service of

boarding kindergarten (overnight accommodations) has been welcomed by some busy

working parents in urban areas. Half-day programs are rare. The children in this

kindergarten program are usually grouped by age, although mixed age grouping does

exist. Teachers who work in kindergartens are required to have at least three years

of professional training.

An independent early childhood education institute for children below the age

of three is another type of program called Tuo Er Suo. This is an infant nursery that

usually provides full-day service. The operation of these nurseries is the same as that

of kindergartens and may be partially funded by the government, work places or

individuals. In recent years, this type of program has been integrated into

kindergarten programs in some urban areas. Teacher qualification in these programs is

usually not as good as that of kindergartens.

A third type of program that has emerged recently is called Zao Jiao Zhong

Xin. This is an early childhood education center. These centers also provide services

for children below the age of three.. Financially supported by local governments or

other resources, these centers usually provide free or hourly rate education programs

such as teacher directed activities for infants and toddlers, or parent-child activities.

Some of these centers are independently built and others are affiliated with regular

kindergartens. In either case, the teachers in regular kindergartens play an important

role in providing the service. These centers may have some branches called early
childhood education stations, which are located in local communities. An informal

childcare service for children before the age of three is private home care, which is

provided by individual families. This kind of service usually has a flexible schedule

and the payment can be negotiated.

Supply and Access

A great gap still exists between urban and rural areas in terms of children’s survival and

development. Millions of young children continue to need help in obtaining nutritional foods and

basic care. Because of the rapid urbanization in the recent years, many farmers have moved into

urban areas to find jobs. Some of these workers bring their children with them, but most leave

their children in the care of their grandparents or other relatives. In either case, the care and the

education for these children have been a great problem. Migrant children may not be able to go to

local child care programs because their parents cannot afford such services. These children may be

brought to their parents’ worksite and often cause a safety problem. Children who are left behind

with relatives may have more emotional and discipline problems in addition to the lack of parental

protection. The number of the children affected by HIV/AIDS has also been increasing in some

areas in the recent years. In some urban areas the government has been adopting special policies to

help these children and their parents.

Financing

Before the mid 1990s, a high percentage of early childhood education

programs in China were partially publicly-funded, and some were partially supported

by work places. In either case, parents shared about 40% of the cost. However, in the

last ten years, the number of public or work site funded kindergartens has been
 decreasing. In many areas, some of these kindergartens have been sold to private

organizations or individuals to become private education programs. In some of these

private kindergartens the cost to parents has increased, while the quality of the

education has not risen. The number of private early childhood education programs

has been increasing steadily in the past 10 years and the monitoring of the quality for

these programs has been a challenge for local governments.

References

In Chinese:

The Ministry of Education (2003). Early childhood education programs.

Yearbook of China Education. Beijing: People’s Education Press.

Chinese Preschool Education Research Association (1999). The collection of important

government documents of the People’s Republic of China on early education. Beijing: Beijing
Normal University Press.

The Preschool Education Research Association (Ed), (2003). The century Chinese preschool
education: 1903-2003. Beijing: Educational Science Press.

The National Women Federation (2001). Chinese Children Development Guideline,

2001-2010, issued by the State Council.

In English:
China at a glance http://www.worldbank.org.cn/

View publication stats