Can China’s kindergartens survive steep drop-off in prospective pupils?

The government-affiliated kindergarten that Lily Wang works for in northeastern China used to be reserved for the children of officials, but China’s plunging birth rate means it is having to cast its net wider nowadays.

“The leadership has shifted its approach, enlarging the enrolment base and learning from the southern regions by adopting group-based management,” said Wang, a senior teacher at the kindergarten in Harbin, Heilongjiang’s provincial capital.

It began recruiting pupils from the general populace in autumn last year. While it still gives priority to officials’ children when reviewing applications, Wang said it felt as though even more pupils came from other backgrounds this year.

With fewer children being born in China, the country’s kindergartens are struggling to find a path to survival. Solutions range from enrolling pupils from a wider range of backgrounds to offering other services that make use of teachers’ skills.

There were 253,300 kindergartens operating in China last year, down about 38,400 – or just over 13 per cent – from 2020. The number of children enrolled in them, which peaked at 48.18 million in 2020, was down 25.5 per cent at 35.84 million.