The number of children who attended preschool classes at local kindergartens and day-care centers reached 480,600 at the end of 2012, and 41 percent of them didn't have local household registration, up 10 percent from 2010, local government officials said at a press conference Thursday.
The increase shows that the gap in education resources for children with different household registrations has narrowed in Shanghai after the local government took measures to provide a fair and inclusive education system for the city's residents, according to a press release issued by the Shanghai Municipal Women and Children Committee and five other government agencies.
The press release summarized the government's progress toward implementing the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) for woman and child development.
Of the 538,000 children of migrant workers who are going to school in Shanghai, nearly 75 percent attend public schools, according to the press release.
The remaining 25 percent are receiving free compulsory education at 157 government-funded private schools.
"We are not only expanding the education system to the suburbs, which suffer a shortage in educational institutions, but are also trying to establish quality-focused education to reach a balanced development of education in urban and rural districts," said Jiao Yang, the chairwoman of the Shanghai Women's Federation.
A total of 54 key schools have opened new schools in outer districts where there has been an influx of migrant families, including Minhang, Baoshan, Jiading, Songjiang, Qingpu and Fengxian districts, Jiao said.
Education equality has been a major concern for the local government. So has children's safety.
Each local school has a policeman patrolling the school grounds at the beginning and end of school days to ensure traffic safety and prevent crime, said Yu Lie, deputy head of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.
Because more accidents involving children occur during the summer or winter breaks, when children spend more time unsupervised, the government is working with social institutions to sponsor more day-care classes, Jiao said.
More than 2,000 children were admitted to 61 charity day-care classes over the past summer, Jiao said.
