Research on the Balanced Development Strategy of Urban and Rural Preschool Education Based on “Internet Plus”

Literature Review

In China, the development of preschool education is led by the government and is mainly driven by policies (Hou, 2016). In 2010, the Outline for National Medium-and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020) and The State Council statements on the development status of preschool education were issued. Since 2011, the three-year Action Plan for Preschool Education has been formulated and implemented across the country to promote the standardized and high-quality development of preschool education. Due to the development of society and the promotion of policies, preschool education, as the foundation of basic education in China, has undergone great changes. For example, the penetration rate of preschool education has increased significantly. In 2018, the gross enrollment rate of preschool education was 81.7%, 25.1% higher than that in 2010. The growth rate of preschool children and the gross school enrollment rate of poor children in preschool education (especially in the remote areas and poor areas in the central and western regions) is also relatively high (He et al., 2018). Preschool education resources have increased exponentially. Comparing the data of preschool education in 2018 and 2010, it is found that in 2018, the total number of students in preschool education in China increased by 77.29%, the number of classes increased by 72.81%, the number of full-time preschool teachers increased by 125.60%, and the number of child-care workers increased by 467.79%. Financial investment in preschool education has increased substantially (Jiang et al., 2022).

The research on the balanced development of preschool education in urban and rural areas has achieved some research results. Rao et al. (2022) carried out theoretical research on the unbalanced development of preschool education in urban and rural areas, paid attention to the influence of government policies on the balanced development of preschool education in urban and rural areas from the perspective of financial investment, teacher training, and international communication. They concluded that the government increased its investment in preschool education in rural areas, and the hardware facilities of rural kindergartens have been significantly improved, but there is still a big gap between urban and rural preschool education teachers, education quality, and management level. They put forward a method of promoting the balanced development of urban and rural preschool education through distance education, online resource sharing, digital libraries, and other practices. Yang and Rao (2021) studied the application of “Internet plus” in the field of education. They took an online course platform in a university as the research object and provided an intelligent and digital management model for kindergartens, enabling teachers to better understand the learning situation of children and improve the teaching quality. At the same time, parents can also keep abreast of their children’s performance in the kindergarten through mobile apps and other means to promote common education between families and kindergartens. “Internet plus” also provides rich learning resources for children, such as online courses and interactive games, which stimulates children’s interest and enthusiasm in learning.