Focus

hool crush has parents scrambling

By Wu Wencong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-27 07:58

On July 9, more than 200 people waited outside the Huilongguan Central Kindergarten hoping to snare a place for their loved ones. People started queuing at 5 am.

And a few days earlier, more than 100 parents waited outside the Huilongguan Beijiaonongchang Kindergarten for a staggering three days in the hope of snagging one of only five available places.

The months of June and July are well known as the months when the annual hunt for spaces in State-owned kindergartens in Beijing takes place.

Communities such as Tiantongyuan and Huilongguan, where more than 600,000 people share three State-owned kindergartens, see the longest line-ups and the most desperation from parents.

The two communities were formed 10 years ago within Changping district. Tiantongyuan community is the largest in Asia, while the Huilongguan community is also famous for its massive "ant tribe" cluster comprised of mainly young migrant workers.

According to statistics, because Tiantongyuan has no State-owned kindergartens, the 10,000 preschool-age children in the two communities have to compete for spaces at the three State-owned kindergartens in Huilongguan, which are together able to offer about 100 places, Mirror Evening News reported on July 14.

As a result, many parents are choosing to send their children to the city center to attend State-owned kindergartens there, picking them up and dropping them off each day, despite the cost and time involved.

Tian Yi, the young mother of a one-year-old boy who lives with her husband in Tiantongyuan, found a space in a State-owned kindergarten in Xicheng district, near her parents' home even before her child was born.

"I had heard so much about the difficulty in finding a suitable kindergarten," said Tian. "So, I talked to my husband and we decided we should make sure our child was enrolled in a good kindergarten before he was born.

"I want my son to have the best education from the start, even though I have to shuttle back and forth between the city center and Tiantongyuan everyday," Tian told METRO.

Statistics show about 70 percent of residents in Tiantongyuan have hung on to the hukou (residency paperwork) from their former residences in the city center. Many do so intentionally so they can qualify for kindergarten space in their old neighborhoods.

State-owned kindergartens are popular because they charge significantly less than private-sector kindergartens.

"We know State-owned kindergartens are not the only choice but private ones can be expensive and lack good teaching resources," said a young parent named Zhang Lifang.

Zhang said it only costs 500 to 800 yuan per month for a child to attend a State-owned kindergarten, while it can cost 10 times as much to go to well known private kindergartens.

"The most expensive one I have heard about costs 5,000 yuan per month," she said.

Since 2006, residents in Tiantongyuan have posted articles online asking for more State-run kindergartens to be built in their community. The campaign has been ongoing for four years but so far Tiantongyuan still does not have one.

An official from Changping district education commission told Mirror Evening News there were plans for State-owned kindergartens in the original blueprints for Tiantongyuan, but the developer ended up leasing the facilities to private kindergartens due to "all kinds of historical reasons".

Changping district government has been working on reclaiming the facilities in recent years and officials say that within three years, State-owned kindergartens will be built in Tiantongyuan.

Liu Limin, head of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, said the city government will invest five billion yuan during the next three to five years to build 118 new kindergartens and enlarge another 300, boosting the proportion of State-owned kindergartens from the current 67 percent to 80 percent, Beijing Evening News reported on Saturday.

However, for some residents in Tiantongyuan, the good news is too far in the future.

On the community's forum, a feasibility report for the building of a non-profit kindergarten has attracted the attention of more than 1,300 people.

"Neptune", the initiator of the report and the father of a two-year-old child, suggested parents in Tiantongyuan build a non-profit family-style kindergarten to educate the children by themselves.

"A non-profit kindergarten would be better than a traditional private one in its management model," Neptune said. "There would be less money wasted and better safety provisions."

Several residents have responded the post positively. Others have doubted the viability of the idea but said anything would be worth a try.