East China Normal University stopped enrolling undergraduate students majoring in early childhood education in 2025. Recently, the university responded that with the decrease in the number of newborns, adjustments have been made to the early childhood education program, sparking concerns about declining birth rates and employment issues on the internet.
According to a report by “Southern Weekend” on March 11th, on March 4th, Mei Bing, the Party Secretary of East China Normal University and a delegate of the 14th National People’s Congress of the Communist Party of China, officially addressed the topic of stopping the enrollment of undergraduate students majoring in early childhood education in 2025 in an interview.
Mei Bing stated that with the decrease in the number of newborns, the university has adjusted the early childhood education program, suspending the enrollment of undergraduate students since last year. Many domestic universities are capable of fulfilling the task of training early childhood education teachers at the undergraduate level, so the university has shifted its focus to the graduate level. The six affiliated normal universities implement integrated training for their full-time normal students, who graduate with a master’s degree. Apart from students in the Excellent Teacher Program aimed at remote and impoverished areas in the central and western regions, undergraduate normal students are no longer directly trained as teachers.
The six normal universities directly under the Ministry of Education of the Communist Party of China are Beijing Normal University, East China Normal University, Northeast Normal University, Central China Normal University, Shaanxi Normal University, and Southwest University (resulted from the merger of the former Southwest Normal University and Southwest Agricultural University). These six universities are all “Double First-Class,” participants in the “Project 211,” or the “Project 985,” mainly responsible for training full-time normal students.
The report quickly became a hot topic on Baidu and Weibo.
Netizens commented, “Simply put, with fewer students at present, the corresponding need for teachers in schools is also reduced. However, there are still a large number of normal students. So, in a situation where there is a choice, schools naturally want more outstanding normal students to enhance their qualifications for better employment.”
“In essence, it’s delaying the graduation time and shifting the employment pressure to three years later, considering the stability of employment for young and middle-aged adults who are unemployed. “In a nutshell: severe job market conditions!”
“The change in population structure has led to the need for adjustments in many industries.” “It’s a trend. Without an increase in the birth rate, there’s a serious oversaturation of teachers.”
Weibo influencer “Dr. Pei in Pediatric Surgery” said, “Recently, when recruiting for a position related to children’s literature, a significant portion of the resumes received were from primary and secondary school teachers. Like obstetricians and pediatricians, they belong to a group of people affected by the decline in birth rates hitting the shore.”