The Shanghai Education Commission is urging kindergartens to strengthen safety measures after several bloody attacks injured dozens of children around the country.
The citywide campaign will focus on the qualifications of kindergarten gatekeepers and teachers, commission officials said yesterday.
Starting this semester, preschools with retired workers as gatekeepers should be replaced with professional security guards.
Kindergartens should also raise salaries to recruit more qualified candidates.
Meanwhile, the commission reiterated that only college graduates with a child-care license would be allowed to be employed as kindergarten teachers. Unqualified temporary nursemaids should be dismissed.
"The series of incidents in other provinces alerted us," said Tang Xin, executive director at Shanghai Association for Nursery and Kindergartens. "We should draw lessons from those mishaps and eliminate hidden dangers."
On August 4, a gatekeeper at a Beijing kindergarten slashed 15 children and three female teachers with a kitchen knife, killing one child.
A preschool for migrant children in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, was also attacked by a man wielding a knife on September 11. He injured 28 kids.
The latest case was a primary school in Juxian County, Shandong Province, earlier this week. A man stabbed 25 students with a kitchen knife and hijacked a nine-year-old girl on Monday. The girl was rescued by police and the attacker arrested.
Ren Xiaomen, a mother, said she approved the commission's plan. "Unqualified kindergarten workers should shoulder great responsibility in those cases," Ren said.
Normally preschools employ retirees as gatekeepers. Untrained gatekeepers and teachers are paid the lowest city salary of 630 yuan (US$76) per month.
Tan said the low wages provide little incentive for people to perform the job properly.
 "People with evil intentions can enter and exit the campus without interrogation," she said
Wang Hailei, headmaster of Benxi Road No. 2 Kindergarten, said schools have been given a big wake-up call.
"With these bloody lessons, we will be even more careful to guarantee the safety of our children." Wang said.