The Ministry of Education announced on Tuesday the launch of a pilot program integrating early childhood education for children and toddlers, set to begin in September. This initiative will involve 152 childcare institutions across the country, including 68 kindergartens and 84 nurseries.
Under the program, these facilities will extend their operating hours to provide 12-hour care from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekdays, a significant increase from the standard hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The purpose of this pilot is to identify potential challenges and make necessary adjustments before fully merging kindergarten and day care operations by 2026.
The government’s goal in merging these institutions is to deliver unified and comprehensive education by streamlining their operations under the sole supervision of the Ministry of Education. Currently, the system’s dual oversight by two ministries has led to inconsistent policies. The pilot program will include four kindergartens with separate classes for disabled children and 17 nurseries that admit children with disabilities, aiming to make education more inclusive.
The pilot program will commence on either September 1 or September 9 and continue through February. The government has allocated a 26.2 billion won ($19 million) grant for this six-month trial, with each participating education office expected to receive around 1.5 billion won.
Seventeen regional education offices evaluated applications from local preschools and nurseries, submitting their selected candidates to the Ministry of Education by early August. The Ministry has instructed these offices to choose at least three kindergartens and three nurseries each to test various child care policies in different environments.
One of the Ministry’s primary objectives is to improve the quality of interaction between children and their instructors by ensuring smaller class sizes. During the pilot phase, additional teachers will be hired if the student-teacher ratios exceed 1:2 for infants, 1:13 for 3-year-olds, 1:15 for 4-year-olds, and 1:18 for 5-year-olds.
Additionally, the Ministry plans to expand research and training opportunities for educators to enhance their skills in child care and education. It also aims to develop a name for the newly merged institutions that reflects both the integration of kindergartens and day cares and the country’s ongoing challenge with a low birthrate.
Despite these efforts, the pilot program faces legal challenges due to current laws that distinguish between nursery and kindergarten admission based on age. According to the Early Childhood Education Act, only children aged three and older, but not yet of elementary school age, can enroll in kindergartens. As a result, only children within this age group can participate in the kindergarten aspect of the pilot program.
An Education Ministry official stated that the program must operate within the existing legal framework. Children aged between zero and two can only participate in the pilot through day care facilities until legal revisions are made. These revisions may allow younger children to attend kindergartens in future phases of the pilot program, potentially starting after February 2024, but specific details and timelines have yet to be confirmed.
The education community has expressed skepticism about the program’s effectiveness. Park Chang-hyeon, a researcher from the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education, voiced concerns in an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo, stating that extending childcare services to 12 hours and improving educational quality are separate issues from the core objective of merging kindergartens and day cares. Park also noted that the current measures do not clearly demonstrate how the merger will function in practice.