Gyeonggi-do to Expand Childcare Centers to 20 Locations by 2026

by Lee YeongKyu

Published 27 Apr.2023 13:59(KST)

Gyeonggi-do Child Care Hwaseong Center Signboard

Gyeonggi Province plans to expand the number of Childcare Centers from the current 10 to 20 by 2026. Additionally, the Metropolitan Childcare Support Group, which oversees the Childcare Centers, will begin operations this month.

Childcare Centers serve as central institutions for local childcare facilities scattered across cities and counties, such as community child centers, Dahamkke Childcare Centers, school childcare centers, elementary after-school care classrooms, and small libraries.

When cooperation between centers at the city or county level is necessary, the Childcare Centers oversee this coordination. The Childcare Center manages various childcare institutions within the city or county, and the Metropolitan Childcare Support Group oversees these city- or county-level Childcare Centers.

Previously, to prevent overlap in childcare projects, eliminate blind spots, and establish a comprehensive support system, the province set up Childcare Centers in four locations?Gwangmyeong, Yeoju, Paju, and Hwaseong?from 2021 to 2022, followed by six more this year in Seongnam, Suwon, Anyang, Gimpo, Icheon, and Guri.

As a common hub project, Childcare Centers carry out ▲building and operating local childcare networks ▲producing and distributing childcare resource guides ▲training staff of institutions within the childcare network ▲providing parenting and community education for parents and local residents.

They also promote region-specific projects such as joint events among childcare institutions and abuse prevention education.

The province expects to improve the quality of childcare services by establishing a service linkage system centered on hub centers that focuses on the needs of care recipients and flexibly responding to urgent childcare demands.

Yoo So-jeong, head of the Childcare Division of the province, explained, "The need for a control tower among childcare institutions has been consistently raised. Through the expansion of Childcare Centers and the operation of the Metropolitan Support Group, a foundation has been established to jointly address childcare issues within the region and unify the dispersed childcare functions."