ENTRE News – Thousands of pre-schools or kindergartens (TK) were forced to close or change function in China due to a lack of students. This student shortage occurs because the child population continues to decrease due to the declining birth rate in China.
Currently, China is facing a youth crisis because hundreds of millions of its population will enter old age in the next few decades. Meanwhile, the very low birth rate in China means that the proportion of the population is increasingly unequal.
“(The problem) becomes very clear as the number of children continues to decrease,” said kindergarten principal Li Xiuling.
Some kindergartens that are no longer operating have been converted into other places, one of which is a health clinic for the elderly. So did Li. He transformed a former kindergarten school into a health and social center for the elderly in his neighborhood.
“After my kindergarten was empty, I thought about how to make the best use of it,” he added.
Li founded the kindergarten in 2005 and has educated up to 280 children. However, the kindergarten will close in 2023 due to a lack of new students. In December 2023, Li converted his kindergarten into a recreation and learning center for the elderly.
The building, located in Taiyuan Province, China, accommodates around 100 music students, all of whom are over 50 years old. Not only music, Li’s school, which is now called Impressions of Youth, also teaches elderly people dance, modeling and other subjects.
“This is quite a progressive idea. They have come to realize some of the dreams they had when they were young,” he said as quoted by The Straits Times
China’s population has shrunk again for two consecutive years with the population decreasing by 2.08 million people in 2023. China’s population is now 1.409 billion. This number exceeds the population decline in 2022 which will reach 850,000 people, the first population crisis in China since 1961.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) noted that China’s birth rate also continued to fall to a record low, namely 6.39 births per 1,000 people. This number is down from 6.77 births per 1,000 people in 2022. This means that only 9.02 million babies will be born in 2023, compared to 9.56 babies born in 2022. This population decline marks the phenomenon of a sexual recession and the demographic challenges facing the President’s government. Xi Jinping amid China’s recent economic weakness.