Seoul City to Invest Additional 20 Billion Won to Expand 'Public and National Childcare Centers' to 1,800 This Year

Increased to 1,749 Locations by the End of Last Year... Highest Level Among 17 Cities and Provinces
Achieved 43.8% Public Childcare Utilization Rate, Aiming for Half of Young Children Attending Daycare to Use Public Facilities by Next Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The number of public daycare centers managed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government increased to 1,749 by last year, the highest among the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces nationwide. Seoul plans to increase the number of daycare centers to 1,800 this year by investing a budget of 20 billion KRW.

According to Seoul City on the 15th, the city announced that it will invest an additional 20 billion KRW this year to increase the number of daycare centers, which stood at 1,749 as of the end of last year, to 1,800. The number of Seoul’s public daycare centers has steadily increased since the announcement of the 'Plan to Expand 100 Public Daycare Centers' in 2015, more than doubling compared to the end of 2014.

Additionally, Seoul plans to raise the public daycare utilization rate to 46% this year and ensure that by next year, one out of every two infants and toddlers attending daycare centers can attend public daycare centers. First, Seoul will prioritize support for autonomous districts with high demand but low public daycare utilization rates to reduce regional disparities in this year’s expansion.

Budget will be concentrated in the first half of the year to promote the conversion of daycare centers within apartments where demand for public childcare is high and the early opening of daycare centers in new multi-family housing complexes. Especially from this year, complexes with fewer than 300 households can convert to public daycare centers if more than half of the residents agree. Efforts will also be made to improve the quality of public daycare services, focusing on creating a leading public childcare model.

To improve the quality of public childcare services, a pilot project will be launched to reduce the number of infants and toddlers assigned to one childcare teacher, a long-standing demand in the childcare field. The pilot project will reduce the number from 3 to 2 for zero-year-old classes and from 15 to 10 for three-year-old classes, with plans to consider expanding the program after the pilot.

The criteria for re-entrusting public daycare centers will also be improved. ‘Essential item indicators’ such as infant health, safety, and facility installation standards will be introduced, and detailed evaluation indicators reflecting changes in childcare policy directions and environments, such as play-centered and eco-friendly childcare, will be newly established to support excellent entrusted organizations in operating daycare centers. A new operational model for public daycare centers aiming for play-centered, eco-friendly, parent and community participation, and democratic and open management will also be prepared.

Song Da-young, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Women and Family Policy Office, said, “Seoul has dramatically expanded public daycare centers through various methods such as public-private partnerships and conversion of apartment management offices. Now, along with quantitative expansion, we will put more effort into improving the quality of childcare services and establish a new public childcare operational model befitting Seoul’s status as a leading city in public childcare.”

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