Officials discuss day care shortage problem
Print Edition
OFFICIALS said yesterday that they will continue to discuss ways to deal with the massive shortage of child day care facilities in Shanghai.
While busy working parents wrestle with the quotidian quandary of locating somewhere safe to leave their offspring, He Huijuan, deputy president of the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions, said the solution was to encourage more companies to set up in-house facilities, while Wang Congchun, secretary-general of the Shanghai Education Commission, insisted the priority was drafting regulations to properly manage the sector.
“We spoke to local companies and found that some of them had set up day care centers, which have been well received,” He said.
“We will draw on their good experiences and seek to encourage other local businesses ... to set up similar facilities,” she said.
Despite the relaxation of the city’s family planning rules, the shortage of day care places was likely to deter many families from having a second child, she said.
“The shortfall in facilities has been an obstacle for families,” she said, adding that in a recent survey of 1,100 working women, 80 percent of respondents said that the paucity of childcare options would put them off extending their families.
The official said also that as many women have to make lengthy journeys to their places of work, it would make sense to open day care facilities closer to where they live.
“It is both strenuous and potentially dangerous for mothers to carry their babies on long journeys. The more practical solution is to open facilities nearer to their neighborhoods,” she said.
Education commission chief Wang said that last year there were more than 530,000 children attending 1,510 kindergartens across Shanghai, and that the number of youngsters was expected to grow to 700,000 in the next three years.
In the face of such pressing demand, the priority was drafting regulations to govern the sector, he said.
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