Development of preschool education major in colleges and universities in the context of low fertility rate: current situation, dilemmas, and strategies to crack the problem

As the scale of higher education expands, the scale of graduates of preschool education majors also continues to expand. However, in recent years, as the fertility rate of China’s population declines, the number of kindergartens and the number of people in kindergartens are decreasing, which makes the preschool education major, which was originally difficult to find employment, even more difficult. This paper analyzes China’s demographic transition dynamics and summarizes the current situation of the development of preschool education majors in the context of the low fertility rate. Meanwhile, the development of preschool education is faced with dilemmas in three aspects, such as resource allocation, teacher quality, and kindergarten operation. The dilemma of preschool education in colleges and universities is analyzed by using data analysis, and the results of the analysis show that: the average total fertility rate of OECD countries is 1.637, and the birth rate of China’s four-year period from 2020 to 2023 falls below 10‰. The decrease in the number of school-age preschool children has brought a fundamental blow to the employment of preschool education students. At the same time, it also leads to the problem of limiting the rational allocation of preschool education resources. For the problem of professional development in preschool education, this paper proposes 4 solutions.