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China's rural preschool education investment grows tenfold: report

Xinhua, November 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

Investment by the Chinese government in preschool education has increased eightfold overall from five years ago with investment in rural areas growing over ten times.

The Ministry of Education on Tuesday released an interim evaluation of a ten-year development plan for education -- the Outline of China's National Plan for Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020), saying that the total fiscal funds earmarked for preschool education in China reached 205 billion yuan (32 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014.

Public spending on rural preschool education in 10 sampled counties rose by 1011 percent over the same period, the report said.

Also, the report said that gross enrollment rates in kindergartens has grown from 50.9 percent in 2009 to 70.5 percent last year.

China had about 210,000 kindergartens in 2014, a 51.9-percent increase from 2009 and the total number of children in kindergartens has reached 40.5 million, the report said, adding that the number of teachers and their educational backgrounds have also improved.

Over the last five years, China has provided training programs at national or local levels to all three million kindergarten teachers and staff members, said Zheng Fuzhi, an official with the education ministry. Endi