BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Education has rolled out measures to supervise and evaluate the popularization of pre-school education in counties across China.

According to a document issued by the ministry, the supervision and evaluation conducted mainly by provincial-level education supervision institutions will be focused on pre-school education popularization, government support and the quality of kindergarten care and education.

The measures made it clear that the evaluation result will be a key indicator of county-level government performance and education development in the localities.

Problems facing pre-school education at present include a low ratio of children in public kindergartens to the total, insufficient financial support, shortage of competent teachers and irregularities in kindergarten operation, according to the ministry.

The office of the education supervision commission of the State Council and provincial and municipal education supervision institutions will carefully look over the popularization of pre-school education across the country through a monitoring and review mechanism, read the document.