Item from March 9, 1982, in China Daily: Children cheer at the Friendship Kindergarten in Shanghai.

China allocated 100 million yuan to help set up more than 7,000 new kindergartens and nurseries across the country last year, according to the State Council's group in charge of preschool education. ...

In Beijing, 167 preschools were built in 1981, bringing the total to 6,495 with an enrollment of 280,000 children.

The Ministry of Education has vowed to build more kindergartens to meet the surging demand for preschools following the implementation of the universal second-child policy early last year.

Financial support will also be provided for the construction of new private kindergartens, the ministry said.

The government estimates that more than 3 million additional babies will be born annually under the second-child policy in the next few years.

By 2020, the total number of babies born under the policy will reach 17 million, putting more strain on preschool resources.

Currently there are 223,700 kindergartens across the country, while officials estimate that close to 100,000 more are needed by 2021.

In the past five years, central and local governments have allocated 400 billion yuan ($58 billion) for preschool education, according to the Ministry of Education.

There have also been calls for compulsory education to be extended to preschools.