Rural pre-school education should get more attention, says a commentary in Beijing News. An excerpt follows:

Three children were killed and 14 others injured on Monday in an arson attack at a pre-school in Shiguan village under the city of Gongyi in Henan Province.

While mourning for the dead and condemning the arsonist, we should reflect on the loose management problem of pre-school education in rural areas.

Also in the city of Gongyi, seven children died and four were injured when a wall collapsed in a rural kindergarten in 2003.

It may be a coincidence. But there still lies the inevitability that it stems from a similar issue.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, there were piles of timber in the courtyard of the pre-school in Shiguan village. People were free to enter the building. Loopholes in the safety management of this school are a reason for the deadly fire.

With the development of rural areas, pre-school education is getting more attention. Though the country can only guarantee nine-year compulsory education, more and more rural residents have included pre-school education in their children's lifelong education systems.

But there are scarcely any government-run pre-schools in rural areas. The authorities have set requirements for the running of pre-schools but in underdeveloped areas, they are hardly met. Because of the low charge and convenience, such privately run pre-schools are very popular in rural areas though many fail to meet the government-set standards.

Many local educational departments are still struggling to solve the issue of the nine-year compulsory education. They can barely give enough attention to pre-school education in rural areas.

To conduct effective management, pre-school education should be included into the national education system. Together with parents, educational departments, kindergarten operators and teachers should all shoulder the responsibility to guarantee better development of pre-school education. Rural pre-schools should also fulfill the basic requirements and guarantee the safety of children. Involved parties, especially government officials, should be held responsible once a serious accident happened.

China is promoting the construction of a new countryside. The development of rural pre-school education may become the content and index to measure the progress.

(China Daily May 11, 2006)