Yangcheng Evening News reporter Li Qiuling Cui Wencan
On the eve of the Two Sessions in Guangdong, Yangcheng Evening News·Yangcheng Faction launched the "I have questions to ask the Two Sessions" solicitation activity, inviting readers and netizens to ask questions, which attracted widespread attention.
Providing good education to young children affects thousands of families.
In recent years, with the liberalization of the two- and three-child policy, the childcare needs of children aged 0-3 in dual-income families have gradually become more prominent.
Who will take care of the child before he goes to kindergarten?
Many young parents have encountered this problem, which is also a major "stumbling block" on the road to childbirth.
Ms. Ma, a Guangzhou citizen, sent a question: Can major public kindergartens offer inclusive childcare classes?
Voice: It’s hard to find a “nursery” for the elderly to take care of your baby
Ms. Ma is a "post-80s" born in Guangzhou. As the only daughter of both parents, she said she was sent to a kindergarten near her home by her parents for care when she was 1 and a half years old until she entered elementary school at the age of 6. Many of her peers also had this experience. .
"The public kindergartens at that time had nurseries and basically accepted infants and young children under 3 years old. It was affordable and safe."
Ms. Ma and her wife, whose eldest son is in kindergarten and whose youngest daughter has just turned 6 months old, are facing work pressure and childcare responsibilities. Currently, they mainly rely on the elderly to take care of their children.
In order to reduce the burden on the elderly, she has been looking for childcare institutions recently, but after visiting and understanding, she found that the current childcare for infants aged 0-3 is mainly provided by early education institutions and private kindergartens, which are either expensive or lack of policy regulations. The reasons, teachers, location, etc. make people feel uneasy.
Ms. Ma said that it is not easy to find a public "nursery school". She lives in Yuexiu District and found that the kindergartens within a few kilometers of her home basically do not accept children under the age of 3.
Ms. Ma called for the introduction of relevant policies to support public kindergartens in providing HP child care services to solve families’ worries about child care.
Current situation: There is a demand for daycare and it is difficult to open it
Is it feasible for public childcare institutions to open inclusive childcare classes?
How do the relevant persons in charge of public childcare institutions view this appeal?
In an interview with a reporter from the Yangcheng Evening News, Wu Dongmei, host of the famous principal studio of the Ministry of Education's "Double Name Plan" and director of the kindergarten affiliated to South China Normal University, said that the implementation of "integrated daycare and childcare" is very necessary and can make up for 0-3 children to a certain extent. The shortcomings in the care of infants and young children aged 10 to 10 years old will promote the professional and high-quality development of preschool education in our country.
In addition, currently, in the face of a sharp decline in the number of school-age children in kindergartens, kindergartens have entered an inflection point of reversal of supply and demand. However, there is a huge gap in the care of children under 3 years old. Kindergartens are extending downwards to provide care and expand service targets. , becoming an important choice for its sustainable development.
In Guangzhou, the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department Kindergarten is one of the few public kindergartens that offer daycare. Shi Liling, the director of the hospital, pointed out that the care of infants aged 0-3 requires higher energy and professional knowledge, and the hardware environment, Teaching aids are also different from those for children aged 3-6. The high cost of running a school is a major problem for kindergartens to run nursery classes.
Another difficulty is that there is currently no government-guided pricing for child care fees in public kindergartens. For example, the kindergarten fees for kindergartens under the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department are still charged based on the provincial first-level kindergarten care fee of 865 yuan/month.
"How the government can provide more support in these aspects is an important factor in the sustainable development of day care." Shi Liling said.
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Provincial People’s Congress Representative Chen Aini: Infant care service personnel should be included in training plans
In fact, the integration of daycare and the care of infants and young children aged 0-3 has always been a hot topic during the two sessions.
As a deputy to the Provincial People's Congress from the maternal and child health care system, Chen Aini suggested encouraging public childcare institutions to open inclusive childcare classes during the two sessions last year.
In response to this suggestion, the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission also issued a co-organizing opinion letter (hereinafter referred to as the "Co-organizing Opinion Letter") to the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education in March last year, which mentioned that Guangdong strongly supports social forces in organizing childcare service institutions and guides various municipalities. Apply for a national inclusive special action project and strive for investment within the central budget... As of March 2023, there are more than 6,100 institutions of various types providing childcare services in the province, providing 328,000 childcare places, and childcare institutions that have passed the review and filing There are more than 1,400, ranking among the top in the country.
"Child care services are a comprehensive, cross-departmental work, and it really requires the joint efforts of all relevant departments and the whole society to promote development." Chen Aini told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that the Provincial Health Commission suggested in the "Co-organizer Opinion Letter" that Based on the changing trends of Guangdong's population and kindergarten enrollment, the education department has strengthened research to solve the problems and difficulties in opening daycare classes in public kindergartens to provide inclusive childcare services, and accelerate the construction of a safe, inclusive and convenient childcare service supply system.
The education department has also responded and is following up on the implementation.
"This year, my team members and I will continue to pay attention to the progress of kindergarten institutions in opening inclusive kindergarten classes." Chen Aini said that through further research and visits, they found that some institutions have a trend of adding kindergarten classes, generally raising the enrollment age from 3 years old. Down to 2 years old.
She pointed out that infants and young children aged 0-3 years old need more professional care. One of the biggest problems currently facing them is that the teaching staff of nursery schools cannot keep up with the talent training.
"Some team members proposed that infant care service personnel should be included in the training plan as urgently needed personnel. This coincides with my idea." She suggested strengthening the industry's talent pool and opening relevant training programs in technical secondary schools and colleges in Guangdong. Professionally, cultivate professional talents in infant care, childcare, childcare management, etc., and strengthen pre-employment talent training.
Collective proposal: Innovative development of “nursing and childcare integrated model”
The reporter noticed that the collective proposal of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Kuomintang, "Recommendations on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Infant Care Services" (hereinafter referred to as the "Service Recommendations"), also focused on the care problems of infants aged 0-3 years old.
There are many models of inclusive childcare.
The "Service Suggestions" not only mentioned that policy support should be increased and innovative development of the "integrated child care model" was also recommended, but also suggested the provision of multi-level and diversified infant care models such as "government and public institution models, community inclusive models, and enterprise park models". The child care service model focuses on increasing the effective supply of inclusive child care services for infants under 3 years old, and provides diversified infant care services such as full-day care, half-day care, and hourly care.
In response to the lack of qualifications and standards for 0-3-year-old daycare institutions, it is recommended that relevant national education, human resources and social security, construction, health and other relevant departments should formulate and issue relevant standards and regulations as soon as possible, including qualifications, personnel quality, service specifications, teacher-student ratio, health Clear regulations on health, nutrition and food services, environment and equipment will be made so that the establishment of child care institutions will have laws to follow and standards to refer to.
The "Service Suggestions" specifically mention that in new residential areas, plan and build childcare service institutions that are suitable for the size of the permanent population, and achieve simultaneous design, construction, completion, and delivery for use. After completion, they will be used to provide public childcare services. Institutions or inclusive private childcare institutions, priority will be given to public childcare institutions.
The "Service Suggestions" also mentioned that it is necessary to actively revitalize and utilize idle properties and property resources of government agencies, state-owned enterprises, and communities, and provide preferential policies such as rent, water, electricity, taxes, etc., or provide interest-free or even Subsidized loans will gradually enable it to grow and improve its self-survivability.
Explore incentive measures such as issuing child care vouchers to support and encourage more social input and reduce the government's financial burden.
Relevant suggestions are also put forward in the construction of professional talents in childcare.