Gangwon Office Of Education And Gangwon Province Hold Policy Roundtable On Childcare And Women's Employment

Closing Childcare Gaps and Supporting Women's Career Recovery
Education and Welfare in Joint Discussion

On February 12, the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Office of Education held a "Policy Roundtable on Childcare Support and Women's Employment" at the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Office of Education Early Childhood Education Center, with about 20 participants including parents raising children and women who had their careers interrupted.

Exterior view of the Gangwon Provincial Office of Education.

This roundtable was organized to link the Office of Education's Neulbom School operations with local childcare and women's employment policies, to directly listen to the difficulties and improvement tasks at childcare sites that parents and residents of the province are experiencing, and to seek effective policy directions.

Starting from the 2026 academic year, the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Office of Education plans to expand the Gangwon-style Neulbom School, to continue customized programs for 1st and 2nd grade elementary school students, and to provide an annual 500,000 won after-school program voucher per person for 3rd grade elementary school students. Through this, it is expected to ease parents' burdens related to childcare and private education, to expand student participation, and, by ensuring the stable operation of the Gangwon-style Neulbom School, to help minimize gaps in childcare and strengthen the public nature of education.

In addition, the Office of Education plans to strengthen linkages with local childcare facilities such as local children's centers and Community Joint Childcare Centers, and to establish a mutually complementary childcare infrastructure system in cooperation with local governments.

Parents who attended the roundtable raised issues such as waiting lists for childcare facilities, the need to expand programs during school vacations, and difficulties in the re-employment process after career interruption due to childcare, and they agreed on the need to promote policies in which education and welfare are organically connected.

Song Su-gyeong, Director of Character and Life Education, said, "We will continue to work with local governments so that school-based childcare centered on Neulbom School can be naturally linked to local childcare and employment policies," adding, "We will create an educational environment where parents can safely entrust their children, while at the same time building a community-based foundation that supports women's career recovery."

Based on the discussions at this roundtable, the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Office of Education and the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province plan to strengthen the linkage between Neulbom School after-school programs and local childcare and women's employment policies, and to continuously pursue policy improvements that reflect on-site opinions.

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