Busan Office of Education to Support Meal Fees for All Public and Private Kindergartens Starting March

Completion of Free School Meals for Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle, and High Schools 11 Years After Implementation in 2011

▲ Busan Office of Education.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] The Busan Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 28th that starting from the new semester in March, it will support meal expenses during the semester for 38,623 children attending all 380 public and private kindergartens in the Busan area.

With this, Busan has completed free meal services for kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools 11 years after beginning meal expense support for first graders in elementary schools in 2011.

The total budget required for free meals in kindergartens in Busan this year is 21.4 billion KRW. Of this, 70% (15 billion KRW) will be borne by the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education, and 30% (6.4 billion KRW) by the Busan Metropolitan City.

The meal expense for kindergartners is 2,500 KRW per meal per child. Parents sending their children to private kindergartens will have their annual burden reduced by 575,000 KRW on average (based on 230 days of support).

Private kindergarten fees consist of tuition and education expenses separately borne by parents. Until now, although there were differences by kindergarten, private kindergartens have collected meal expenses included in the kindergarten fees. Public kindergartens provide meals from the tuition fees, so parents did not bear separate meal expenses.

With the Office of Education supporting meal expenses, the burden on parents sending children to private kindergartens is reduced, and the meal expenses, which varied among private kindergartens, will now secure a standardized meal unit cost.

Superintendent Kim Seok-jun said, “Free meals in kindergartens will help alleviate the burden on kindergarten parents who are experiencing economic difficulties due to COVID-19, even if only slightly,” and added, “We will do our best to provide high-quality meals through nutrition management and hygiene safety management of kindergarten meals going forward.”

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