On July 11, the Information Office of Liaoning Provincial People’s Government held the third press conference of a thematic series titled “Improving People’s Wellbeing and Delivering Practical Services to Benefit the People”. The conference introduced the main measures, progress, highlights, and plans of Liaoning’s efforts this year, including enhancing the public-interest kindergarten construction and promoting the high-quality and balanced development of compulsory education.

In 2023, Liaoning has allocated a total of 557 million yuan from central and provincial funds to support the development of preschool education, marking a year-on-year increase of 26.9%. These funds are primarily used to guarantee the basic operation of public-interest kindergartens (including both public and inclusive private kindergartens), subsidize preschool education for economically disadvantaged children, orphans, and those with disabilities, as well as to expand the coverage and enhance the quality of public-interest preschool education resources.

Liaoning has implemented measures to effectively address the shortage of public-interest kindergarten placements by building new public kindergartens, renovating and expanding existing ones, and increasing the availability of inclusive private kindergartens. Since the beginning of this year, Liaoning has built, renovated and expanded 35 public kindergartens and added 15 inclusive private kindergartens, resulting in a total increase of 7,000 public-interest kindergarten placements.

To reduce the disparities in educational quality among schools, Liaoning has focused on deepening group-oriented education reform and advancing equitable teacher allocation. As of now, there are 825 education groups established in Liaoning, comprising 3,915 member schools, which account for 98.2% of the total number of compulsory education schools in the province.

In the next step, Liaoning plans to further strengthen the supply of public-interest preschool education resources and increase support for inclusive private kindergartens. By the end of 2023, Liaoning is expected to achieve a public-interest kindergarten coverage rate of over 89.2%. At the same time, Liaoning will accelerate the promotion of high-quality and balanced compulsory education to achieve integrated urban-rural development, as well as improve the overall quality of teaching staff through enhanced training.