Oh Shin-hwan, 750 Billion Won to Daycare Centers Over 5 Years... "I Will Raise Them to Public Standards"

Lowering the Age of Infants in Charge of Childcare Centers
Increasing Public Daycare Centers
Improving Private Daycare Centers to Public Standards

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] Oh Shin-hwan, a candidate for the People Power Party's Seoul mayoral primary, announced on the 17th a pledge to introduce Seoul-type public certification daycare centers to raise the public childcare utilization rate to 80%.

Former lawmaker Oh Shin-hwan, a candidate in the People Power Party's Seoul mayoral by-election primary, is presenting the Youth Income Plus policy at the National Assembly Communication Hall on the 1st. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

Oh said, "We will invest 750 billion won in direct budget over the next five years to expand Seoul's public childcare utilization rate, currently at 43.8%, to 80%," adding, "To achieve this, we will increase the number of Seoul-type public certification daycare centers, including national and public daycare centers, to 3,200 by 2025."

First, he stated, "Seoul plans to invest 20 billion won this year to add 51 public daycare centers, increasing the total to 1,800 by the end of the year," and added, "We will steadily increase national and public daycare centers, which are highly preferred by mothers, through continuous investment."

Oh emphasized, "It is impossible to expand public childcare in the short term with only national and public daycare centers," and said, "We will focus investment in personnel and facilities at the national and public daycare center level in private daycare centers to expand and reorganize Seoul's infant care system into ‘Seoul-type public certification daycare centers.’" The ‘Seoul-type public certification daycare centers’ promise to guarantee the same level of childcare quality and safety regardless of whether they are public or private.

To this end, he announced plans to first concentrate Seoul's public sector job creation budget on expanding care teachers, lowering the number of infants per childcare teacher, raising childcare teacher salaries, supporting meal teachers and cooks at Seoul-type public certification daycare centers, and expanding the assistant teacher system and extended childcare to realize safe and high-quality childcare.

Considering the care gap between autonomous districts, Oh stated, "We will expand comprehensive childcare support centers starting with districts that lack them to achieve regional balance."

Meanwhile, Oh plans to visit the child care center ‘Oksu Jungang Ai Kkum Nuri’ in Oksu-dong, Seongdong-gu, in the afternoon. The reason for visiting Seongdong-gu is that it has achieved the highest total fertility rate among Seoul's autonomous districts for three consecutive years. Oh's campaign explained that this reflects a case demonstrating how a well-organized care system plays a crucial role in solving the low birthrate problem.

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