Private Kindergartens and Daycare Centers in Daejeon Also Receive 'Early Childhood Education Fees'

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Starting next year, early childhood education expenses will also be provided to children attending private kindergartens and daycare centers within Daejeon.

On the 18th, according to Daejeon City and the Daejeon Metropolitan Office of Education, the two organizations confirmed this support plan for early childhood education expenses at the education administration council held the previous day.

The core of the support plan confirmed at the council is that from next year, the city and the education office will provide monthly education expenses of 130,000 KRW for children in private kindergartens and 90,000 KRW for children in private daycare centers.

The total support target is approximately 23,300 children aged 3 to 5 years old, and the estimated budget for the education expenses to be supported is 26.9 billion KRW.

Among them, the total support amount for children in private kindergartens (14,800 children) is 19.24 billion KRW, with the city and the education office agreeing to share the budget equally.

The early childhood education expense for private kindergarten children (130,000 KRW) is the same amount as the education expenses paid to national and public kindergartens, and the support will be provided by the city budgeting the funds while the education office pays the kindergartens directly.

For children in private daycare centers (8,518 children), 90,000 KRW, which is about 60% of the average education expenses borne by parents, will be supported, and the entire related budget of 7.67 billion KRW will be borne by the city.

The city and the education office also agreed to share 50% each of the free meal budget of 128.3 billion KRW, which reflects the increased unit price.

Next year's school meal unit prices are set at 3,800 KRW (an increase of 300 KRW) for elementary schools, 4,800 KRW (an increase of 500 KRW) for middle schools, and 5,000 KRW (an increase of 400 KRW) for high schools.

This represents an average increase of 9.6% compared to this year, and the city and the education office expect that reflecting inflation in meal costs will improve the quality of school meals.

Moon In-hwan, Director of the City’s Culture and Tourism Bureau, said, “We will cooperate closely with the education office to create a better educational environment and strive to nurture talents who will lead the future of the region.”

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