Human Rights Commission: "Excluding Migrant Children Residing in Korea from Tuition Support Is Discrimination"

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) has determined that not providing tuition support to migrant children with foreign nationality residing in the country constitutes discrimination.

On the 18th, the NHRCK announced that on the 6th, it recommended the Minister of Education to form a consultative body involving relevant central administrative agencies and experts to ensure that migrant children with foreign nationality residing in Korea are not discriminated against in receiving early childhood tuition support, and to prepare measures to expand such support.

According to the NHRCK, complainant A filed a petition stating that the Ministry of Education excluded young children without Korean nationality from the early childhood tuition support program, thereby restricting migrant children's right to equal education and their right to grow up healthily.

The Ministry of Education responded, "Article 1 of the Framework Act on Education defines the subjects of educational rights as citizens, and the early childhood tuition support under the Early Childhood Education Act is also premised on citizens. Whether to include foreign-nationality young children in the tuition support program is a matter to be judged comprehensively considering equity with other social welfare service systems and the government's financial conditions, requiring social consensus and legal grounds."

The NHRCK stated, "The early childhood tuition support program provides tuition assistance for kindergarten and daycare centers for children aged 3 to 5 regardless of the guardian's income level, and it cannot be regarded simply as a charitable policy. Migrant children also need equal educational opportunities at the starting line of life." Furthermore, it added, "Issues such as equity with other social welfare service systems and government financial conditions should be resolved through consultations with relevant agencies. These cannot be appropriate grounds for excluding migrant children."

The NHRCK explained, "If migrant children do not receive adequate childcare, their rights to survival and development as children are not guaranteed, leading to a vicious cycle that ultimately results in child poverty. This could impose burdens on society as a whole in the future and act as a factor hindering the social integration of migrants."

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