The competition to give your children the best possible education can be fierce in China, but some parents apparently go so far as to sign their kids up for the best kindergartens when they are just a few months old.

Though kindergartens only accept pupils from the age of 3, at least two top public kindergartens in Hefei, the provincial capital of eastern Anhui, offer paid “early childhood classes” for those under 3 that guarantee enrollment in the highly competitive institutions, state news agency Xinhua reported Friday.

Such classes are illegal, according to an education ministry regulation from 2011 that bans public kindergartens from charging for extra-curricular classes. However, one interviewee told Xinhua that one of the institutions was already out of spots, and that the youngest children were 3 months old.

To enroll in these classes parents now need connections, and even then it might be difficult, interviewees said. “There were a few open spots in the early education class when we signed up. Many people found somebody [who could help them] at that time,” a parent said. “Two people from our residential district managed to get in through personal connections. Another three people who had none failed to get in.”

The two kindergartens from Xinhua’s report are so-called authorities kindergartens, which are affiliated to government departments. They are controversial because they receive public funding but prioritize children of government workers.

The official at Hefei’s education bureau in charge of early education, Li Li, commented that it is against regulations for public kindergartens to link extra-curricular classes with enrollment. But, Li said, authorities kindergartens are free to set their own rules and as such her department has limited oversight.

Editor: Kevin Schoenmakers.

(Header image: Parents line up to register outside a kindergarten in Beijing, Oct. 21, 2009. Wu Hailang/VCG)