East China’s Jiangsu province has made every effort to actively explore diversified and inclusive childcare services, focusing on meeting parents' more scientific and high-quality parenting needs through school-government cooperation, medical education integration, and government sponsorship so as to provide parenting support for families and reduce the burden of childcare.
Jianye District R&D Headquarter Kindergarten is the first government-funded kindergarten in Nanjing, which is jointly built by Jianye High-tech Zone Administration and the Experimental Kindergarten of Nanjing Xiaozhuang University. At present, the kindergarten has enrolled 40 children in two classes, which has solved the problem of early childhood care for the employees in the park, especially for families with dual employees.
“From 8am to 6pm, the time for entering and leaving the park is relatively flexible. We also offer diversified childcare services, such as delivering children to us for half a day or a day when they are temporarily left unattended. We may also take care of them for an hour, either”, Liu Jing, Logistics Director of Jianye District R&D Headquarters in Nanjing, said.
“My child goes to kindergarten here because it is convenient for them to commute to and from work with me. We used to place our children in private institutions and had to pay around four or five thousand yuan per month. Now we only need to pay around 3000 yuan, which reduces the burden on us”, parent of a child, said.
At a kindergarten in Taizhou City, the teacher is leading the children through games. The functional areas of art, education, reading, and sports, can meet the diverse needs of young children.
“We focus on childcare with games as our main activities, so as to promote the comprehensive development of babies in physical development, movement, language, cognition, as well as social and emotional aspects, so that babies can learn by playing and play by learning”, Zhou Lihua, Principal of Home with Kids Tuoyu Garden, Jiangyan District, Taizhou City, said.
This kindergarten is one of the inclusive childcare institutions created by Jiangyan District of Taizhou City. Such inclusive childcare institutions can not only enjoy the tax relief and construction and operation subsidies provided by the government, but also enjoy preferential civil prices in terms of water, electricity and gas. However, the monthly fee charged to parents should not exceed 80% of the market price, which is finalized at about 2000 yuan per month.
As of now, 1800 childcare institutions in Jiangsu can enroll 260000 children, ranking among the top in China. This year, Jiangsu will add 110 inclusive childcare institutions to increase the number of childcare facilities per thousand people to 3.3.
