The "14th Five-Year Plan" outline proposes that the number of childcares for infants under 3 years old per 1,000 population will increase from 1.8 in 2020 to 4.5 in 2025
Great potential for developing inclusive childcare services (health focus)
In the activity classroom of the Early Childhood Education Center of China Soong Ching Ling Youth Science and Technology and Cultural Exchange Center, childcare staff are accompanying children to play games.
The childcare staff guide the children to collect the discarded pieces of paper.
Photo by our reporter Yang Yanfan
A few days ago, the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of Child-Friendly Cities" issued by 23 departments including the National Development and Reform Commission proposed to support the development of inclusive childcare services.
Encourage and support enterprises, institutions, social organizations, and communities to provide inclusive childcare and infant care services.
The "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Optimizing Fertility Policies to Promote Long-term and Balanced Population Development" proposes to vigorously develop various forms of inclusive services.
Give full play to the guiding and leveraging role of investment in the central budget to promote the construction of a group of convenient and accessible, affordable, and quality-guaranteed nursery service institutions.
Infants and children aged 0-3 are the "softest group" in society.
With the implementation of the three-child childbirth policy, the development of inclusive childcare services is an integral part of reducing the cost of childbirth, parenting, and education, and is also an important measure to meet the people's needs for infant care services.
A few days ago, the reporter conducted an interview on how to develop inclusive childcare services.
The contradiction between the supply and demand of childcare services is still prominent. Even if there are elderly people in the family to take care of infants and young children, many families still have a need for childcare.
At 10 o’clock in the morning, in the activity classroom of the Early Education Center of China Soong Ching Ling Youth Science and Technology and Cultural Exchange Center, Xixi, who had just turned two years old, was intently tearing off the adhesive of the colored pieces of paper and pasting the colored paper on the big tree drawn by the teacher in advance. .
In a short while, a large tree full of "fruits" handwork was completed.
"In the form of games, children can tear papers and stickers to exercise their fine finger movements. In the process of decorating big trees, they can also cultivate children's interest in art." Childcare teacher Gao Yanxing introduced.
In the sound of cheerful music, the children frolicked around the teacher.
"Come on, the teacher will wipe your nose. Tell the teacher, where are the tissues?" During the conversation, Gao Yanxing took the tissue box and patiently asked the child to help take out the tissue, and guided the child to throw the used tissue into the trash. bucket.
This kindergarten is supported by the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation. There are currently 80 nursery places, each class has 20 children and 4 childcare staff.
Through the linkage with the local neighborhoods, the nursery school also regularly organizes community parent-child activities, parent classrooms, online courses, etc., to provide early development guidance services for families with 7 months to 3 years old infants in the surrounding community.
Children go to kindergarten after 3 years old. Who will bring children before 3 years old?
According to Yang Wenzhuang, Director of the Population and Family Department of the National Health Commission, in recent years, various localities have actively explored diversified childcare services.
Since 2019, the National Health Commission has successively issued the "Standards for the Establishment of Nursery Institutions (for Trial Implementation)", "The Regulations for the Management of Nursery Institutions (for Trial Implementation)", "Guidelines for the Care of Nursery Institutions (for Trial Implementation)" and "Guidelines for the Prevention of Infants and Toddlers in Nursery Institutions (for Trial Implementation)" (Trial), "Training Outlines for Persons in Charge of Nursery Institutions (Trial)" and "Training Outlines for Nursery Personnel of Nursery Institutions (Trial)" and other documents have provided compliance for the standardized and professional development of nursery services.
I took the initiative to try to take off my shoes, practiced drinking water and wiping my hands with a towel after a meal, and recognized the round and square shape... In the nursery school of the Alford Upper East Center of the Jingxue Education Group, several young teachers are taking advantage of the lunch break to prepare for next week Teaching activities and plans.
“We have carried out cooking courses for children over one and a half years old, such as simply choosing a leaf of vegetable or cracking an egg. The children love it,” said Chen Hongyu, director of the Nursery School of the Alford Upper East Center.
According to Li Jing, founder and CEO of Jingxue Education Group, relying on Internet technology, the park has built a cloud-based intelligent education management platform that can support teachers' teaching and research, video surveillance equipment and other intelligent hardware products.
Teachers can upload photos and videos of children in real time through the APP, communicate with parents, and conduct daily training and learning through courseware.
"The child has been here for almost two months." Li Yang, the parent, told reporters that before, he and the elderly in his family took care of the children, but the concept of parenting is different from that of the elderly, and he is also planning to return to the workplace, so he considered childcare institutions.
"The biggest change is that children have developed the habit of eating independently. We are still very happy."
In the interview, when asked about the main reasons for choosing childcare services, most parents said that they value safety, being close to home and scientific parenting methods.
"Together with other children, we hope that children can exercise their learning ability and develop good habits in this social environment," said Ms. Shi, who lives in Chaoyang District, Beijing.
"The rigid demand for childcare services is constantly increasing. When children are 0-3 years old, many women have difficulties in working and family balance, which affects career development, and often turn to the elderly for intergenerational care." said Yao Ying, full-time vice president of China Family Planning Association. , The survey shows that even if there are elderly people at home to take care of infants and young children, many families still express the need for childcare.
"Currently, the contradiction between the supply and demand of childcare services is still quite prominent." Yao Ying said that China has nearly 42 million infants and children under 3 years old. According to a 2016 survey of ten cities, 35.8% of parents of infants and children under 3 years old have childcare needs. It is estimated that tens of millions of places are needed.
According to the national population and family dynamic monitoring data in 2019, the actual enrollment rate of infants and children under 3 years old in China is only 5.5%.
Public and private are not the criteria for defining inclusiveness. Inclusiveness is mainly embodied in three aspects: convenience and accessibility, acceptable price, and guaranteed quality.
The reporter visited and found that in most areas of Beijing, the fees for childcare institutions ranged from 6,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan per month.
Mao Zhuoyan, a professor at the School of Labor Economics at Capital University of Economics and Business, pointed out that there is a phenomenon where urgent family needs and vacant institutions coexist.
Parents suffer from no one to help with their children, but the prices of nursery service agencies in the market are generally high, service quality is uneven, and service resources are unevenly distributed, which cannot meet the needs of the masses.
Yang Wenzhuang believes that to implement the requirements of the central government and solve the problem of childbirth and nurture for the masses, it is necessary to keep a close eye on the core problem of high reproductive and nurturing costs, reduce costs, improve quality, standardize the charging standards of public and inclusive kindergartens, and vigorously develop inclusive childcare services. , To reduce the burden on the elderly.
In 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Health Commission issued the “Implementation Plan for Supporting Social Forces to Develop Inclusive Childcare Services (Trial)” to support exemplary childcare service institutions and community childcare service facilities that undertake certain guiding functions , A subsidy of 10,000 yuan will be given to each newly-added retreat.
A few days ago, the investment of 7 billion yuan in the central budget for 2021 has been allocated to various localities to support the special construction of "one old and one small". In terms of "one small", support for the addition of 60,000 new demonstrative infant care places.
Walking into the Good Morning Nursery School in Banan District, Chongqing, you can hear singing from the window; on the second floor, three children are learning to wear shoes; on the other side of the corridor, the children laugh in front of the teacher’s camera Brilliant... "This is the first inclusive childcare institution in Banan District." said Chen Xuezhu, the person in charge.
"My son is here. We are very relieved." In September this year, the nursery school opened. Ms. Kuang immediately called for consultation after seeing the news. "We are a two-child family, and the couple is busy with work. Take care of the children."
"The monthly tuition fee is several hundred yuan lower than the market." Wang Hua said.
She is also a "two-child mother". She told reporters that there are many childcare institutions on the market, but inclusive childcare institutions can bring more price concessions to families.
"The government-approved price is 2,600 yuan a month, and our fees are even lower." Chen Xuezhu said that these concessions benefit from government support. "We have applied for national financial support. In addition, in order to reduce the initial investment in the construction of the park , Banan District has another 80,000 yuan subsidy for us."
What gives parents peace of mind is not only the price of nursery schools, but also strict inspection and supervision standards.
As early as the preparations, Banan District Development and Reform Commission, Health and Health Commission, Food and Drug Administration, fire protection and other departments often come to check.
"Kitchen, lighting, air... all indicators must meet standards." Chen Xuezhu said.
Nowadays, more and more inclusive childcare services have come into the eyes of the masses.
The "Three-year Action Plan for Childcare Services in Shanghai (2020-2022)" proposes that by 2022, on the basis of establishing at least one inclusive childcare point in each street and town in the central city, the street and town in the non-central city will follow The population structure and service demand distribution sites basically meet the needs of citizens, and the coverage rate of inclusive nursery schools in the streets and towns of the city is not less than 85%.
This year, Xiamen City in Fujian Province is actively taking measures to accelerate the construction of 10 pilot institutions for inclusive childcare services.
"Public and private are not the criteria for defining inclusiveness. Inclusiveness is mainly embodied in three aspects: convenience and accessibility, acceptable prices, and guaranteed quality. On the whole, China's inclusive childcare services are still in the initial stage of development. "Mao Zhuoyan said.
To develop inclusive childcare services, it is necessary to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of social forces to form a multi-level, diversified and high-quality childcare market
"0-3 years old is the key stage of children's physical and mental development. The World Health Organization defines the early 1,000 days of life as the'window of opportunity' for a person's growth and development. During this period, the human brain develops the fastest and has the strongest plasticity. "Yao Ying said that infant care should follow the age characteristics of infant development and promote physical and psychological development.
Since the childcare service market is still in its infancy, and the talent training system and comprehensive supervision mechanism are not yet complete, many parents have low awareness and acceptance of childcare services.
Ms. Luo, who lives in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, said that her child is over 1 year old and she has also visited some childcare institutions. Although it feels good, she still has some worries. Bring relatives.
"The development of inclusive childcare services requires full mobilization of the enthusiasm of social forces." Mao Zhuoyan said, strengthening the construction of community childcare service facilities, supporting qualified employers to provide childcare services for employees, encouraging and supporting the recruitment of qualified kindergartens Children aged 2 to 3 are the development path of inclusive childcare.
In 2019, Beijing Tongxin Tongyu Education Group cooperated with Shenzhen Academy of Building Research Co., Ltd. to explore the establishment of childcare services in employers.
It is understood that the kindergarten currently has 12 children, 3 teachers, and 1 childcare staff, which has largely relieved the worries of parents in the workplace.
However, private nursery institutions still face some difficulties.
Di Wen, founder and chairman of Beijing Tongxin Tongyu Education Group, said: “On the one hand, the number of children of the company’s employees is limited, and the enrollment rate cannot be guaranteed. On the other hand, although the company provides free venues, the park’s high property fees and water and electricity costs It is still borne by childcare institutions, coupled with labor costs and inclusive prices, there are still many challenges in operation."
The "14th Five-Year Plan" outline proposes that the number of childcare places for infants under 3 years old per 1,000 population will increase from 1.8 in 2020 to 4.5 in 2025. According to this calculation, nearly 4 million new childcare places will be needed. Industrial development The potential is huge.
Mao Zhuoyan believes that to guide social forces to actively participate in childcare services, it is necessary to further refine specific measures and support.
In the future, we should further deepen the reform of decentralization, regulation and service, create an innovative, integrated, inclusive and open development environment, improve convenient and efficient supervision services, and form a multi-level, diversified, high-quality service nursery market that benefits every family.
Yang Wenzhuang said that it will continue to carry out special actions for inclusive childcare services, improve community childcare service facilities, and support state-owned enterprises to actively participate in the construction of the inclusive childcare service system promoted by governments at all levels.
Carry out the national infant care service model city creation activity, encourage local governments to spend real money, expand service supply, and improve service quality.
It is also necessary to make comprehensive use of fiscal, taxation, insurance, housing, employment and other measures to fight the "policy combination punch" to support childbirth, so as to achieve "one baby spends less money, two children do not spend money, and three children receive rewards and supplements." Remove obstacles that affect young people's fertility.
Our reporter Yang Yanfan and Chang Biluo