(Yicai) Jan. 2 -- Chinese local governments have proposed adjusting the distribution of kindergarten resources, given the declining number of newborns in the country and the increasingly stronger trend of the population to migrate to medium and large cities.

Heilongjiang province will set up a mechanism to adjust to the new urbanization development and children population needs to share the resources from these fields with rural kindergartens and primary and middle schools, Dong Cheng, deputy director of the Chinese northernmost province's educational department, said on Dec. 14.

China's birth rate sank to 6.77 per 1,000 people in 2022, with the number of newborns falling to 9.6 million, which resulted in a slump in the number of kids at a suitable age to attend kindergartens. This, plus the rising urbanization level and moving of the population to medium and large cities, made adjustments in the distribution of educational resources distribution necessary.

The impact of the falling number of newborns to primary school enrollment will vary from place to place, said Ding Changfa, an associate professor at the Department of Economies of Xiamen University. Primary schools in villages and towns will be hit the most, with those in counties and small cities also likely to be impacted, Ding noted, adding that primary schools in big cities will barely feel a difference.

The education department of Hunan province proposed on Nov. 29 to orderly arrange the establishment, merger, transformation, closure, construction, reconstruction, and expansion of a batch of local government-funded kindergartens in urban and township areas where the population is concentrated, with no adjustments expected in rural areas in principle.

Moreover, Hunan encouraged the gradual confluence of county-level high schools to the capital cities of local counties. It also strictly banned government-funded high schools from shutting down and required prudence in approving new private high schools.

Anhui province released a notice in August to order the closure of 50 private kindergartens in Linquan county in Buyang city. Of them, 12 had applied for termination of operation, while the rest had no students enrolled.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione