我国学前教育事业发展主要矛盾与公共财政投入改革方向

Principal Contradictions and Reformation of Public Finance in Early Childhood Education and Care in China

自2010年以来,我国学前教育事业取得了令人瞩目的成就。然而,我国学前教育事业发展的主要矛盾是什么?现有学前教育财政投入模式能解决这些矛盾吗?本文在描述学前教育事业发展成就之后,通过实证证据揭示我国学前教育事业发展中的三对主要矛盾:在园儿童规模整体增加与结构性供给不足之间的矛盾、结构性学前教育质量改善与城乡儿童发展差距不断扩大之间的矛盾、公共财政投入持续增加与弱势群体家庭成本负担不断加重之间的矛盾。本文认为,历史、观念和制度,特别是学前教育财政制度是导致上述矛盾的体制性根源。最后,本文指出深化学前教育财政投入改革方向应该走出公共财政资源主要服务于精英群体子女的制度遗传,逐步建立瞄准来自弱势群体家庭儿童的制度体系。

China has witnessed a remarkable growth in early childhood education and care(ECEC)since the year 2010 when the Chinese governments increased investment in the sector.However what have been the principal contradictions and challenges in the ECEC sector in China?Will the public finance system of ECEC help resolve these contradictions?Against the recent dramatic growth of ECEC,the current paper describes three pairs of contradictions in the term of access,quality and cost of ECEC based on empirical evidence from results of analyzing data from two national representative household surveys and other regional surverys.The first pair is the contradiction between an overall increased access of preschool education v.s.seemingly increased structural shortage in supply of affordable quality of early childhood education for children from the most disadvantaged families;the second an overall increased structural quality in ECEC v.s.a widened development gap between the urban and rural children aged 3-6;and the third an continuous growth in public funding in ECEC v.s.a considerable cost burdens of preschool education shouldered by the disadvantaged families.It is argued that the historical,ideological and institutional factors in ECEC have all contributed to the formation of contradictions.Particularly,the public finance system are responsible for the current contradictions in ECEC institutionally.The policy implications for the reformation of public finance of ECEC are to build up a system serving children from the most vulnerable families instead of those from the elite upper-class ones.