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Tech hub of Shenzhen drafts first rules in China guaranteeing kindergarten access amid private tutoring crackdown

  • A new draft regulation in Shenzhen is set to be the first in China to guarantee children a spot in a local kindergarten, but parents would still have to pay
  • Private online tutoring companies, which help parents cover non-compulsory education, are now imperilled by a crackdown from Beijing

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Kindergarten students stand in front of a billboard featuring a portrait of Deng Xiaoping in Shenzhen to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late paramount leader on August 22, 2004. The city, one of the youngest in China, is set to become the first in the country to guarantee spots for children in local kindergartens. Photo: Reuters
Iris Deng
China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen, picked by Beijing to become a model socialist city, is drafting the country’s first detailed rules that would guarantee access to kindergarten, offering a peek at the future of preschool education amid a crackdown on private tutoring institutions that has roiled the market.

Under new rules proposed in the draft Regulations on Preschool Education in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, published in mid-July, all preschoolers would be allowed to enrol in kindergartens in their neighbourhoods, without the need to take prior exams, requiring only health check-ups.

The rules would also require kindergartens to step up supervision of students for security, which would include setting up cameras in main areas such as cafeterias and classrooms. Surveillance videos would need to be stored for at least 90 days, and schools would be banned from sharing them without approval. Only agencies for public security, education administration and market regulation are allowed access to the videos under the regulation.

After passing the first-round review by the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress in June, the draft regulation was published earlier this month and remains open to public feedback until the end of July. The city aims to have the regulation approved by the local congress by the end of the year, according to a report on Wednesday from the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, a newspaper run by the local Communist Party committee.

Once passed, it will be the first local regulation in China dedicated to preschool education, which includes kindergarten. Schooling before the first grade is not covered by China’s laws on compulsory education. While the new rules in Shenzhen would guarantee children a spot in a local kindergarten class, parents would still have to pay for it.

The national government has also been trying to address this gap in education access. The State Council has been reviewing a preschool regulation since April, according to a statement from the Ministry of Education published online this month.

Shenzhen’s push to guarantee early education comes amid a crackdown from Beijing on the previously booming private tutoring industry, which has helped bring early education to children, largely through online classes, as parents look for a way to give their kids an edge in school.

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