Vice Minister of Education Zheng Fuzhi virtually attended the Second World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (WCECCE) on Nov. 15, and delivered a speech at the high-level meeting of the conference.

Zheng said the Chinese government attaches great importance to preschool education and has made efforts in three areas to ensure equity and universal accessibility. First, a cross-sectoral management mechanism has been established to ensure the consistent implementation of county-level action plans. Second, a number of research-based guidelines have been issued to offer guidance on the development of preschool-aged children and preschool education quality assessment. In addition, nationwide awareness-raising activities have also been organized on a regular basis. Third, measures have been taken to increase the availability of early childhood education in rural areas. Thanks to these efforts, the gross enrollment rate at the preschool level across China reached 88% in 2021.

Zheng added that the Chinese government will continuously raise government spending on preschool education, further improve support mechanisms, and provide online and in-person teacher training services. She also said China would join hands with other countries to achieve relevant targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Second WCECCE was jointly held by UNESCO and the Uzbekistan government from Nov. 14­–16 in Tashkent. Issues on the agenda included safeguarding the rights of young children to quality care and education, quality development of pre-primary education and financial investment. The president of Uzbekistan and the Director-General of UNESCO attended the conference. About 1,500 representatives took part in the event either in person or virtually.