Proposals to provide families with access to free preschool education appear to be gaining political momentum in China, as the country intensifies its efforts to convince couples to have more children by creating a “birth-friendly society”.
Advertisement
The idea was formally proposed by a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), ahead of the annual meeting of China’s top legislature this week.
The proposal – which involves expanding free public education in China from the current nine years to 12 years, by including three years of preschool – follows similar suggestions made during two local-level political gatherings in January.
“Free preschool education can reduce education costs for families, alleviate families’ financial burdens, and effectively tackle young people’s unwillingness and fear to have children,” the deputy who made the proposal, Tuo Qingming, who is also the principal of a middle school in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, was quoted as saying by domestic media.
Though not every policy proposed at the NPC is necessarily adopted, or even debated, public speculation has been growing in China over recent months that authorities are moving towards introducing free preschool education.
Advertisement
China has been ramping up its push to build a “childbirth-friendly society” through a variety of measures in recent years, as the nation of 1.4 billion faces a looming demographic crisis that could affect its long-term prosperity.