(Yicai Global) July 29 -- Shenzhen has issued draft regulations to stop nursery schools from going public in order to maintain the public welfare nature of preschool education.

Public kindergartens cannot be taken private and may not get involved in the running of private kindergartens or other educational institutions in order to seek profit, according to a draft set of regulations whose period of soliciting opinions from the public ends tomorrow.

Shenzhen has over 560,000 pre-schoolers who vie for places in the city’s 1,800 public and private kindergartens. The preschool system struggles with high teacher mobility and insufficient places. The proposal also addressed changes to teacher qualifications, salaries and allowances as well as course content.

No organizations or individuals may change the nature and purpose of public nursery schools without authorization, the draft Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Preschool Education Regulations said. Social capital should not control kindergartens through mergers, acquisitions, franchises and other arrangements.

The new rules are likely to be implemented before the end of the year, the Securities Times reported. This would make Shenzhen the first Chinese city to write into law a draft Preschool Education Law released by the Ministry of Education last September which stated that kindergartens shall not be listed directly or indirectly as corporate assets. At present over 20 firms listed on the mainland operate nursery schools, according to incomplete statistics.

Editor: Kim Taylor