Recently, the Ministry of Education released the 2025 list of Counties with Universal and Inclusive Preschool Education, and Qingtian County of Lishui City, Zhejiang Province was successfully selected and awarded the National County for Universal and Inclusive Preschool Education. 

This honor comes from the county's deepened reforms and multi-dimensional efforts in resource expansion, teacher development, quality improvement and mechanism building, blazing a high-quality development path for preschool education in mountainous areas.

The county's achievements rely on solid measures. Gangtou Kindergarten in Wenxi Town, a typical example of resource expansion, opened in February 2025. Built to provincial first-class standards with 12 classes, it adds 360 public preschool places, filling the regional gap and enabling nearby access to high-quality public education for local children. The kindergarten recently held a kitchen opening ceremony, letting children immerse themselves in traditional folk customs.

In recent years, Qingtian has integrated preschool education into urban and rural development planning to expand inclusive resources. Since 2021, it has invested about 364 million yuan to build 16 new public kindergartens, adding over 4,100 preschool places. It has strictly implemented the "five-synchronization" policy for community supporting kindergartens, merged 49 weak private kindergartens, and built an urban-rural inclusive preschool education service network. At present, 99.41% of children attend inclusive kindergartens and 94.95% study in public ones in the county, far exceeding provincial standards.

Teachers are the core of high-quality preschool education. Qingtian County Government Kindergarten regularly holds experience-sharing activities for principals, like the recent Qingtian Quality Preschool Education for All Children — Principals' Kindergarten Operation Story Sharing where 12 principals shared their experiences, building a communication platform for preschool educators. Qingtian has strengthened teacher team construction by improving principals' capabilities through quality displays, on-the-job training and rank assessment, and boosting teachers' growth via full-staff training, flexible talent introduction and master teacher studios. Financial guarantees and incentives stabilize the team, with 100% of preschool teachers certified and 83% holding a bachelor's degree or above.

In addition, the county set up 6 preschool education regional communities and built a "6+18+N" alliance model, leveraging high-quality kindergartens for resource sharing, and focusing on nature education to deepen curriculum reform. It also strengthened the government's main responsibility, and has included preschool education funds in the fiscal budget with annual growth, forging a funding guarantee system dominated by government investment and supplemented by multi-source fundraising.

Through expanding resources, strengthening teachers, innovating models and improving guarantees, Qingtian has realized a leap from "having kindergartens to attend" to "having good kindergartens to attend", delivering an excellent answer sheet for the high-quality development of preschool education in mountainous areas. Going forward, the county will advance preschool education from "Affordable Preschool Education for All" to "High-Quality Preschool Education for All", safeguarding children's happy childhood and promoting their all-round healthy growth.