Development Of China's Rural Preschool Dominated By The Government

Pre-school education is a crucial part of the national education system in China and is also an important social welfare undertaking. It involves physical and mental development of young children as well as enhancement of the quality of the nation. As a result, every country in the world strongly promotes pre-school education as an important task of the government.Since the reform and opening up, in order to achieve the dream of rejuvenating the country through science and education, all levels of government focus on the development of the basic education, vocational education, and higher education. However, pre-school education has not been given much attention, leading to "Expensive Admission","Difficult Admission " and a series of social problems. Especially in rural pre-school education, due to the absence and out of position of government, social forces become the leading force in rural pre-school education and the pre-school education in rural area faces more severe challenges than urban’s. In2010, the Chinese government promulgated "National Medium-and Long-Term Development of Education Reform Plan", proposing to focus on the development of rural pre-school education, and to strengthen the responsibility of the government. The purpose is to change the "market-oriented" tendency of the current rural pre-school education. How does the rural pre-school education develop? What role does the government play in rural pre-school education? How to deal with the relationship between the government and the market? etc. These problems need to be seriously reflected on.This thesis deeply explores rural pre-school education development in Shannxi province on the basis of fully affirming the achievements made in recent years. It analyzes the outstanding contradictions and problems in the development of rural pre-school education, proposing that the government leading solution is the key to solve this problem. This paper also makes a number of suggestions to governments at all levels on how to lead the pre-school education around the issues of why government leading is needed, what the government leads, and how the government leads, on the basis of learning experiences from how the foreign governments interfe with the pre-school education. This thesis mainly includes:First, on the basis of the theory of educational equity, the education cost sharing theory, the function of the government theory, public service theory, and the investment in human capital theory, this research examined government’s responsibilities and obligations in the process of the development of pre-school education, as a role of provider of public goods and a defender of social equity. It elaborated the meaning of government leading, proposed the basic framework of the government leading for development of the rural pre-school education, and provided theoretical support for the government leading development for pre-school education.Second, taking the development of rural pre-school education in Shaanxi Province as an objective and using the empirical study, this research investigated the current rural pre-school education development in-depth and gave a realistic contemplation to a series of questions, such as the uneven development of rural pre-school education, lack of planning and management, low funding, lagging behind of the management practices of the private kindergarten and teaching staff construction.Third, this research analyzed the causes of rural pre-school problems in the current rural pre-school education through the deviation of the government and the public understanding to the pre-primary education, the lack of institutional protection of the development of rural pre-school education, the lack of basic funding system, flawed management system of child care teachers, and the lack of security of the public service system.Fourth, after systematically analyzing the basic approach to intervention in pre-school education in the United States, the United Kingdom, India and other developed and developing countries, I proposed eight experiences:(1) protecting the public welfare and universal type of the pre-school education by legislation;(2) establishing the responsibility quintal system of public pre-school education organized and developed by the government at all levels;(3) continuing to strengthen the government leading responsibilities;(4) promoting the popularity of pre-school education and fairness through the leading role of public pre-school education system;(5) establishing the financial priority with a focus on the protection mechanism of the development of pre-school education;(6) paying attention to the construction of pre-school teachers;(7) guiding and supporting the private pre-school education in the direction of pluralism and public welfare;(8) providing priority to the poor and vulnerable groups of children to receive the pre-school education.Fifth, on the basis of research and references, I suggest that government leading is the real choice for the development of China’s rural pre-school education. In doing so, the government must prepare the top-level design of the pre-school education in rural areas, improve preschool education legislation, invest more funds, create the system and mechanism of running a kindergarten, achieve diversification of the running a kindergarten mode, set a sound system, enhance the overall quality of child care teachers, and strengthen supervision and evaluation of the pre-school education.