SHENZHEN: A newly-opened kindergarten has been attracting young parents in the country's southern city.

Called "Ying Huang" or "Emperor", the kindergarten, said to be the city's first "five star" kindergarten, promises to offer "the best caring services" to the children.

"Our management philosophy is to provide our kids everything with the best," said the kindergarten's director Wang Qiqi.

She said Ying Huang's teaching would be conducted in both Chinese and English. Children could also learn other foreign languages such as French and Spanish.

"All of the teachers working here have bachelor's degrees or above and speak both Chinese and English. Our child-care workers have all come from overseas and can communicate with kids in English in their daily life. Kids here will have a much more solid language foundation than their peers," Wang said.

Built at a cost of more than 20 million yuan, the kindergarten's teaching materials and tools have been imported from overseas and it houses various fully-equipped rooms such as brain-training room, artistic design room, dancing room and library. The children's theater, built at a cost of around 5 million yuan, can accommodate over 300 kids.

Ying Huang's tuition fees is 5,000 yuan a month, however. That is almost double of a Shenzhen worker's average income.

But the high tuition fees have not deterred many young parents from taking their kids for admission to the kindergarten. At the kindergarten's first open day, nearly 200 parents came with their kids for addmission while there were only 80 seats.

"We will meet all of them to see whether our teaching philosophy and that of the parents match with each other before enrolling their kids," Wang said. Wang and her colleagues had already "interviewed" 30 parents in the open day.

Not all like it

Liu Hongxi, management center director of Shenzhen experimental children's education, thought the meeting between kindergarten and parents was "quite important" for the children's future growth.

Liu was not surprised by Ying Huang's high tuition fees. "Price is always decided by the market. As a high-end kindergarten that has many advantages, Ying Huang should have its own market."

However, there are also those who have reservations against such trendy kindergarten. "I would not send my child to the kindergarten even in the first place," said Jiang Lei, a local motor joint venture's engineer. "Kids growing up in such luxurious environment will feel superior to their peers and as such they may find it hard to fit themselves into the local community when they grow up."

Kevin Jia, an IT manager, also said that he would not send his kid to such kindergarten. "It's too expensive to most of us, but I think what kids need most is to have fun and grow up healthily and without worries. Things like bilingual education will put unnecessary pressures on them and make them lose naivety at a very young age," said Jia.

Yang Sizhong, a guest professor at Shenzhen University, said providing a good education environment for kids was necessary but a "too good one" would generate "counter effects" especially to their future development.

"They get everything too easily in such an environment and it would not be helpful at all to cultivate their originality and independence of dealing with problems or difficulties in their lives," Yang added.

(HK Edition 06/23/2007 page4)