What is the earliest public preschool education institution in China?

The earliest public preschool education institution in China is the Hubei Provincial Kindergarten founded by 1903 in Wuchang.

Hubei Governor established the first kindergarten in China-Hubei Kindergarten in the ordinary primary school hall of Wuchang cavalry training ground. At that time, three Japanese teachers, including graduates from Tokyo Women's Normal College and Miyuki Dongye, were hired to teach, which was the first case in the history of early childhood education in China. Hubei kindergarten was founded in 1903, and the original site was Wuchang cavalry training ground.

From 1902, under the planning of Zhang Zhidong, the Academic Affairs Office organized and implemented a large-scale educational innovation in Hubei Province. It is from this point that the old feudal traditional education system in Wuhan began to disintegrate completely, and a new regional academic system with modern capitalist color gradually formed.

Although kindergartens in Hubei province mark the end of the history that preschool education in China is completely undertaken by families, the socialization of school education has begun to take the first step. However, its establishment is not without any shortcomings or defects. As the earliest social preschool education institution established in the late Qing Dynasty, it completely imitates the model of Japanese kindergartens.

Imitating the Regulations on Kindergarten Nursery Equipment promulgated in the thirty-second year of Japanese occupation, most of the teachers are Japanese women, and even the equipment is purchased from Japan. Kindergartens in Hubei province have not got rid of the characteristics of semi-colonial and semi-feudal education.