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Over the past three decades, kindergarten education as an important part of the Chinese education system has been developed significantly (Li and Xiao, 2011). As Zhu (2009) argues, kindergarten education is no longer a single and closed kind of provision but is now a part of a comprehensive and integrated system of education and care for all three to six years old preschool children.

2.2.4.1 After 1979

The Reform and Opening-up Policy implemented by the Chinese government since 1979 has profoundly changed the country's economic structure, social life, as well as its cultural and educational development (Zhu, 2009; Wang and Liang, 2011; Zhou and Shen, 2011). Moreover, the implementation of the One-

conditions brought about by economic reform gradually raised demand for high quality care and early education from birth to school age (Zhou and Shen, 2011). Liu, Pan and Sun (2007) examine how, in order to strengthen international competitiveness within the context of globalisation, the Chinese government accelerated economic development. This included changing the way that early years' provision was run, namely releasing the total control it had had since the People's Republic of China was established in 1949. As noted by the authors, the government began to permit state-owned kindergartens to be taken over by other organisations including social organizations, enterprises, agencies, individuals and foreign-funded enterprises and individuals.

Cai (2011) further reports that, in the previous era of a planned economy, state- owned enterprises were expected to share the government's responsibility for social functions; and therefore, state-owned enterprises ran kindergartens as affiliated settings for providing a childcare service as part of employee's social welfare benefits. The author also points out that, after the economic reforms, state-owned enterprises had to follow the market system and reduce their social function by abolishing the welfare system; and therefore, due to the lack of resources and capacity, the government could only partially take over the kindergartens and the remaining kindergartens were exposed to the market with new self-management practices and independent operations.

2.2.4.2 From the 1990s

Building on the change of ECEC provision in the 1980s, the 1990s was a hard time for kindergarten development although it saw further growth, especially in the private sector (Liu, Pan and Sun, 2007). Zeng (2011) claims that there is a

conflict in that kindergarten education does not belong to the compulsory education system in China, and therefore it is excluded from government budgets for public education. Liu and Feng (2005) argue that kindergarten education during the 1990s not only lost the previous financial support as welfare benefits from state-owned enterprises, but also became ineligible for financial support from the government; and as a result, most kindergartens were taken over by private investment capital. Moreover, the economic and social change led to many kindergartens closing down and the number of kindergartens dramatically decreased between the end of 1980s and beginning of 1990s (Liu, Pang and Sun, 2007; Cai, 2011; Pang and Hong, 2011). In order to resolve this problem, the government enacted a series of policies, such as the Outline of China’s Education Reform and Development in 1993 and the Regulations on School Running by Social Forces in 1997, to encourage the private sector and individuals to run kindergartens and invest in kindergarten education (Sun, Liu and Wang, 2011).

In addition, Cai (2011) points out that the breakup of public ownership in the economic system has promoted the development of a diverse private sector in China, and this lays the foundation for diversified ownership of educational settings. Pang and Hong (2011) also suggest that since China is a developing country, it is impractical for the nation to be responsible for all aspects of ECEC development and it has to be undertaken jointly by the government, private sectors and individuals. Furthermore, Zeng (2011) argues that, with proper incentives and market constraints, competition amongst educational institutions could help improve the quality and standards of education.

Since the 1990s, according to Cai (2011), the corporate welfare housing system has been gradually replaced by a commercial system, and a large number of commercial organisations have developed very rapidly. The author highlights that in order to meet residents' demands for neighbourhood schools, community developers have developed various cultural and educational facilities, including kindergartens, as a marketing feature, with this becoming an important factor that leads to rises in house prices from the 1990s. Issues, such as having "a good kindergarten in the community" and "the convenience of children going to kindergarten", have become important considerations for young parents when they buy houses (Cai 2011, p246); and so, there has been a growing trend in China for community-based social and private resources to be used to establish kindergartens and to invest in kindergarten education in the past two decades.

Overall, the private sector as part of China's economic reforms has rapidly developed, making possible diversified sponsors, and enabling joint regulation through government and market mechanisms from the 1990s (Zeng, 2011). To a certain extent, Liu (2007) believes that, such changes has made up for the deficiency of ECEC development in China during the 1990s, and have met the rising demands for a widened range of kindergarten education and care. The more important point is that it provides the conditions and context for the continuing development of private kindergartens in China (Cai, 2011).

2.2.4.3 Since 2000

In 2001, the Ministry of Education issued the national guidance outline for kindergarten education (China MoE, 2001) to support the development of kindergarten education nationwide from a policy level. The guidance sets out

five official learning areas for kindergarten children: art, health, society, science and language. It also emphasises that educational content needs to be close to children's life experiences and respect children's rights, individual demands and interests (China MoE, 2001), as well as recognising the value of childhood, and play-based learning in a child-centred curriculum (Liu and Feng, 2005; Liu, Pan and Sun, 2007; Li, 2009). In contrast to the traditional Chinese view of children and ECEC, this national document now reflects the contemporary view of children (as discussed in Section 2.1.1), as active, competent and independent learners, which is consistent with the prevalent concept of children within a Western context (Zhu and Zhang, 2008).

In 2003, the State Council launched The Guidance on the Reform and Development of Early Childhood Education (China State Council, 2003). Wang and Liang (2011) analyse that this policy document sets up a government-led kindergarten management mechanism; it outlines the blueprint of kindergarten provision. To act in accordance with the guidance, the pattern for kindergarten education provision has been gradually formed, that is “public kindergartens being the demonstration model” and “private kindergartens being the main

component” (China State Council, 2003). Moreover, Zhu and Zhang (2008) argue that the educational function of kindergartens has been highlighted beyond childcare as stated in the national policies that is kindergarten education is “an important part of basic education” (China State Council, 2003) and “the foundation stage of the school education system” (China MoE, 2004). Liu (2009, p31) analyses relevant national policies of ECEC in recent years and argues that, kindergartens have been positioned by the government as "a component of social and public welfare undertaking" with the purpose of easing the family

childcare burden and meeting the increasing demands for female labour-force participation. As demonstrated by Zhai and Gao (2008), kindergarten provision in China has turned to undertake the dual responsibility of education and care rather than just childcare for pre-schoolers.

Liu et al. (2013) report that since 2003, kindergarten education has made rapid progress. In response to the implementation of the guidance outline for kindergarten education (China MoE, 2001), it has been put forward in The Several Opinions of the State Council on Developing Preschool Education at Present (China State Council, 2010b), that the government has a lead in the new direction taken by kindergartens: mobilizing local government to establish public kindergartens and developing preschool provision jointly through multiple means; namely, encouraging and supporting the private sector, enterprises, social organizations, community committees and individuals to found and donate to kindergarten provision. The Ministry of Education published official statistics on education (China MoE, 2014), which shows that by 2013, the number of kindergartens across the country had risen to 198,600 and the population of children in kindergartens was 38.9469 million, with the admission rate of three years olds standing at 67.5%. However, this meant that 32.5% of children in this age group, that is to say, 18.75 million children, did not attend kindergarten. Liu et al. (2013) point out that given the huge school-age population in China, the country faces a great challenge; and therefore, the government set the objective of preschool education for the next decade, that is to vigorously develop public kindergartens and actively support private kindergartens, with joint efforts made by public and private agencies.