The decline also reflected that teachers might soon lose their jobs.

China recorded 46.3 million kindergarten and preschool enrolments last year, Liu Changya, a director at the Ministry of Education, said on Thursday, reports South China Morning Post.

That was 1.7 million fewer than the 48 million recorded in 2021, government data showed. At the same time, the number of kindergartens fell by 5,000 across the country, the newspaper reported.

The drop in new admissions is also a reflection of the reduction in child birth rate.

Last year, Chinese mothers gave birth to 9.56 million babies – the nation’s lowest total in modern history and the first time the figure has dipped below 10 million.

China’s birth rate fell to a record low of 6.77 per 1,000 people, while the overall population fell by 850,000 to 1.4118 billion, as deaths outnumbered births for the first time in six decades, the newspaper reported.