The integration of baby care and day care will redefine the new pattern of kindergarten development in the future

“Children are educated”, the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China condensed the education issues of more than 100 million preschool children across the country into four crucial words, placing it at the top of people’s livelihood projects. It triggered strong reactions from all walks of life, and "integration of childcare and childcare" has also become the most concerned programmatic issue. The integration of kindergarten and child care is jointly promoted by multiple forces and is a new trend and new blue ocean in the development of kindergartens.

Judging from the overall data of kindergartens, there were more than 280,000 kindergartens last year. There are 15,000 new kindergartens added every year, and it is expected that the number of registered kindergartens in China will exceed 300,000 next year. The supply of kindergarten places has increased significantly.

Starting in 2018, the number of children born each year will be less than 15 million. The number of children of kindergarten age is approximately 45 million. I predict that starting from 2021, the average number of children in kindergartens will be less than 150. On average, there are 5 classes in each kindergarten. Many of these 300,000 kindergartens will face dissatisfaction with the enrollment of children.

Therefore, kindergartens will face a situation of oversupply. On the whole, adding a new age group for child care is a good choice.

From a micro perspective, kindergarten managers are faced with the problem of not improving floor space efficiency and whether spare classrooms can be used. Even if the student pool can be filled, kindergartens can still increase square footage efficiency by establishing daycare classes. Another important demand of kindergarten managers is to extend the kindergarten to children under the age of 3 to identify the source of young children in advance.

The increase in the proportion of kindergarten students will be an important force in the development of the childcare industry.

With the implementation of the inclusive kindergarten policy, there is indirectly a very strong demand for private kindergartens to provide daycare. However, the proportion of integrated kindergartens and childcare is still very low. Data from the Ministry of Education show that there were more than 1 million children in day care last year, accounting for 6% of the school-age population. It is conceivable that the proportion of children in day care will increase from 6% to 30% in the future.

Therefore, the integration of kindergarten and childcare is an important force in our entire childcare industry. This trend is the result of parents’ demands, policy push, and especially the strong demands of kindergartens themselves.