我国农村地区儿童早期照料与教育的供给及选择

The Provision and Utilization of Early Child Care & Education Programs in Chinese Rural Regions

儿童早期照料与教育是促进儿童早期发展、保证教育公平的重要途径。为了深入了解中国农村地区儿童早期照料与教育的提供和利用情况,本研究基于1991—2011年中国健康和营养调查(CHNS)数据,首先运用随机效应回归模型和普通最小二乘法探讨不同社区在提供儿童早期照料与教育服务方面存在的差异,然后采用多元逻辑特回归模型探究农村儿童看护类型的选择情况,最后运用最小二乘法分析影响儿童被照料时间的主要因素,结果发现我国农村儿童在获得早期照料和教育上存在很大的差别;农村幼儿园大多建在经济条件比较好、公共设施比较便利的地方,经济发展落后地区以及偏远地区幼儿园的可及性明显影响这些地区儿童的入园率;家庭收入水平低的儿童在接受早期照料和教育服务方面劣于家庭条件好的儿童。可见,当前我国农村儿童早期照料与教育发展不平衡,农村地区尤其是贫困、偏远地区儿童入园率低的问题亟待解决。作为公共服务提供者,政府应更多向贫困地区的贫困家庭进行政策倾斜,形成以财政投入为主的农村贫困地区儿童早期照料与教育经费投入体制与机制。

Early childhood care and education are important to early childhood development and education fairness. Using the data of China Health and Nutrition Survey （CHNS） from 1991 to 2011, this paper discussed the provision and utilization of formal early child care ＆ education programs in Chinese rural regions. First, this study analyzed the differences of communities in provision of child care ＆ education services using random effect model and OLS model; Secondly, adopting multiple logit model, the paper estimated the child care ＆ education type choice of parents in rural areas; Finally, using the OLS, the paper estimated the determinants of the cared time for children. The results showed that there were great differences in early care and education for rural children in China. Rural kindergartens were basically built in those places with better economic conditions and more convenient public facilities, and those families, whose villages had kindergartens and better economic conditions, were more likely to send their children to kindergartens. Compared with children from high-income families, those children from economic backward areas and low-income families received less kindergarten care and education. Therefore, the current China＇s early childhood development is seriously unbalanced, and the problems of the low enrollment rate of children in poor rural areas remain unresolved. The governments should attach more importance to provide early child care ＆ education for poor families in rural areas.