Seoul City Provides Emergency Support of 7.5 Billion Won to Childcare Centers Facing 'COVID-19 Operational Difficulties'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] On the 20th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it will urgently provide 7.5 billion KRW for personnel expenses to private and home daycare centers facing operational difficulties due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), and 6.3 billion KRW for disinfection costs and quarantine supplies such as masks and thermometers to all daycare centers.

According to Seoul City, private and home daycare centers, which rely on personnel expenses and facility operating costs on childcare fees from enrolled children, are facing difficulties in normal operation due to prolonged closures and a significant decrease in the number of enrolled children caused by the spread of COVID-19.

As of the end of last year, the number of children enrolled in daycare centers in Seoul was about 217,000, but as of March, it sharply dropped to about 194,000, a decrease of approximately 23,000. During the same period, 206 out of 5,698 daycare centers closed.

In particular, unlike national and public daycare centers where part of the personnel expenses are supported, private and home daycare centers find it difficult to maintain class composition or teacher employment when the number of children decreases, causing disruptions in providing normal childcare services.

Accordingly, Seoul City has decided to first select 2,489 private and home daycare centers with low enrollment rates and provide partial differentiated support for personnel expenses. Facilities with an enrollment rate below 95% will receive 1.14 million to 1.9 million KRW per class, and even if the enrollment rate is 95% or higher but the number of children has decreased, they will receive 800,000 KRW.

However, facilities that do not meet these criteria, have no staff, are scheduled to close, or are undergoing or scheduled for administrative sanctions such as suspension of operations are excluded, and support is provided on the condition of maintaining teacher employment.

Separately from support for private and home daycare centers, Seoul City will also support the operation of daycare centers struggling to collect childcare fees from foreign children. For 1,111 daycare centers with foreign children enrolled, an average of about 1 million KRW per facility will be provided as operating expenses, with 200,000 KRW for infants and 380,000 KRW for young children depending on the number of enrolled children.

In addition to personnel expense support, a total of 6.3 billion KRW will be provided to all daycare centers for quarantine supplies such as masks worth 3.4 billion KRW and disinfection costs of 2.85 billion KRW to prevent COVID-19 infection.

Song Da-young, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Women and Family Policy Office, said, "This teacher personnel expense support aims to allow teachers to focus on childcare and provide normal childcare services at daycare centers," adding, "We deeply appreciate the efforts of childcare staff cooperating in COVID-19 prevention on the front lines."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.