(Yicai Global) March 20 -- China should explore education system innovations such as adjusting quota of teachers and reconsider the regional distribution of resources to cope with its plunging birth rate, according to education experts. 

The supply of resources for education should be made more flexible to deal with possible challenges arising from rapid changes in the school-age population and its geographical distribution, Wang Dinghua, secretary of the party committee at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said to Yicai Global.

The country should consider dynamically adjusting its layout of education staff while buying teaching services to fight against labor shortages or surplus, he suggested.

The aging demographics are starting to show in kindergartens but not yet in universities as China recorded less than 9.6 million new births last year, tallying fewer than 10 million for the first time since 1950, according to official data. The birth rate was only 6.77 per 1,000 residents. All of the 18 provinces which have unveiled their related data logged declines.

The impact of reduced inflows of new students will be bigger on primary schools in rural areas as well as schools in small cities, especially in resource-exhausted cities, in comparison to developed areas and places with large population inflows, according to Ding Changfa, associate professor at Xiamen University. 

Experts gave some practical suggestions. Kindergartens, which are not full, could provide childcare services for two to three-year-old children, per Xiong Bingqi, head of the 21st Century Education Research Institute. They should improve their standards, reduce class sizes, and make teaching methods more personalized to improve the quality of teaching while alleviating systemic pressures.

If people start increasingly moving places because of differences in the educational offering, stronger actions should be taken to achieve a balance, according to Chu Zhaohui, researcher at the China National Academy of Educational Sciences.

Additionally, if people move because of regional gaps in social and economic development, authorities should adjust the distribution of education resources to avoid an excessive concentration of good schools in more developed areas, Chu added.

Editor: Emmi Laine