The shortage of kindergarten facilities in China is becoming a new source of public concern as recent studies show that some 96% of children below three years old face the risk of being unattended.

Official figures show that only 4.1% of children aged 0 to three have a chance of entering a kindergarten, as most of the current kindergartens do not admit children below three.

China's universal two-child policy witnessed an initial success in 2016, which saw the largest annual number of newborns since 2000.

However, many public kindergartens are no longer able to accept children under three due to limited resources.

At the same time, private kindergartens, which are interested in tapping into the market potential, complain that they can't get approval for taking in kids of these age groups.

Experts call on the government to support both public and private kindergartens with adequate financing and favorable policies.

In his report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised the country would focus more on issues related to the childcare sector.

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