Several recent instances of violence in kindergartens have caused widespread worry.

A teacher in a kindergarten in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province on October 15 disciplined a 5-year-old girl by slapping her across the face 70 times over a period of 10 minutes for an insignificant mistake. Only several days later, a photo showing a boy being lifted off the ground by the ears by his teacher, Yan Yanhong, in a kindergarten inWenling, Zhejiang Province surfaced. In the photo, Yan seemed to be amused at her horrific punishment of this child.

The public reaction was incendiary, asking why this kind of abuse keeps on happening.

Physical punishment of kids has obviously violated teachers' acceptable conduct. According to Chinese law, teachers shall not discriminate against students, punish them physically, humiliate them or strip them of their dignity, nor shall they infringe upon the students' rights. Physical punishment even in the so-called name of education will cause damage, even more so since Yan's action seems to have been for fun. These actions have seriously weakened the ethics of the entire profession.

People wonder how these people can be allowed to work as kindergarten teachers. With the increasing of school costs caused by rising prices, privately funded kindergartens have gained growing support from authorities. This has allowed many unlicensed kindergartens to open, including the two schools involved.  Non-governmental kindergartens cannot get financial subsidy from governments. As such, to save costs, they lower their recruitment threshold and relax the restrictions. This has allowed some unqualified people find work as kindergarten teachers.

These kindergartens lack any standardized management and are an unsafe environment for children. Parents today are willing to spend generously on their children's education as long as the children can get the best teaching and highest standard of care.

This is another blow to the education sector. Preschool education should be under the supervision of governments but these have been lacking in action. These are likely not the last abuse cases we will see, given the spate seen in recent years. Although the teachers concerned have been punished, these abuse cases keep rearing their ugly heads.

Children represent the future of this nation and the psychological impact of this abuse will last for a long time. Besides public concerns, practical steps should be taken as soon as possible to protect children from such crimes.