Seoul City Surpasses 50% Usage Rate of Public and National Childcare Centers... First Among 17 Metropolitan Cities and Provinces

Operating 1,824 Locations in March... 62 New Openings Last Year, Average 4.3 per Administrative District
Half of Children Attending Daycare Use Public Facilities... Establishing a Foundation for Public Childcare

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 30th that it opened 62 new public daycare centers last year alone, achieving a public daycare center usage rate of 50.2% for the first time among the 17 metropolitan cities and provinces. This means that 1 in 2 children attending daycare centers use public facilities. As of March, Seoul operates the largest number of public daycare centers nationwide, with 1,824 centers in operation.

According to Seoul City, the usage rate and facility ratio of public daycare centers are more than 2.5 times higher than the average of other metropolitan cities and provinces. The usage rate of public daycare centers in other regions ranges from 10.6% to 33.0%, and the facility ratio ranges from 8.6% to 29.7%.

Seoul City plans to expand the ratio of public facilities to meet the demand for public childcare, focusing on expansion through coexistence and cooperation, such as converting existing management building daycare centers within apartment complexes or private/home daycare centers, rather than new construction. For management building daycare centers and private/home daycare centers converting to public, up to 240 million KRW per center will be supported for remodeling and equipment purchase. Public daycare centers converted from private/home centers guarantee operational rights to existing operators, and after the long-term lease contract ends, re-approval as the original type is also possible.

In particular, newly established public daycare centers in new apartment complexes with more than 500 households will apply the newly established ‘Seoul Universal Design’ this year, installing childcare rooms that fully consider the physical and emotional developmental characteristics of infants and young children. New construction or remodeling of public daycare centers will apply the ‘S-Care Daycare Customized Environment Design (developed by Seoul Design Foundation)’ to provide a safe and comfortable childcare space for infants and young children. The daycare center area will also recommend a space of 7㎡ per child, which is wider than the legal standard of 4.29㎡ per infant, to create an optimal childcare environment.

Additionally, projects to strengthen the public nature and transparency of public daycare centers will be carried out simultaneously, focusing on creating a leading public childcare model. For public childcare staff converted from private centers and newly hired public daycare staff, Seoul City operates its own capacity-building training programs and supports ‘Infant Care Consulting,’ ‘Self-Consulting,’ and ‘Safe Childcare Accounting Consulting’ based on communication and empathy.

Furthermore, to improve the quality of daycare services, Seoul expanded the ‘Teacher-to-Child Ratio Reduction Project,’ which was first piloted for public daycare centers in July last year among metropolitan cities and provinces, to include Seoul-type private and home daycare centers this year. Through open recruitment, 50 additional centers including Seoul-type (private/home), workplace, and corporate daycare centers were selected, and from March, a total of 160 centers are operating with reduced ratios: 0-year-old classes from 3 to 2 children, and 3-year-old classes from 15 to 10 or fewer children. The city fully supports the wages of pilot class childcare teachers with municipal funds, investing 4.8 billion KRW this year for this purpose.

Kim Seon-soon, Director of the Seoul City Women and Family Policy Office, said, “Seoul City has expanded public daycare centers preferred by parents through various methods such as apartment complex management building and private conversions,” adding, “We will continue to make greater efforts to establish new operational models where public and private sectors can coexist and cooperate, considering environmental changes such as the decrease in childcare children.”

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