Despite low birth rates, preschool 'enrollment war' remains fierce

Korea faces record-low fertility rates and declining population, but parents are engaged in an enrollment war for preschool spots.

Children get ready to ride the school bus heading to their kindergarten on Aug. 1 in 2022 in Seoul. [YONHAP]

Korea as a nation may be faced with record-low fertility rates and a declining population.

However, parents with toddlers old enough to go to kindergarten next year face a so-called enrollment war, a term used to describe the extreme competitiveness in securing a spot at preschool institutions, especially in the greater Seoul area.

While preschools in recent years have been closing down, faced with financial burdens, the preference for certain private institutions has only made matters worse.

With more families where both parents work, several preschool institutions with earlier closing times, or those that have longer summer or winter breaks in line with public schools, are less sought out.

In recent years, it has become common for both parents and sometimes other family members, including grandparents, to be on standby in front of the computer before clicking madly the moment the kindergarten's online admissions window opens during the application period.

The process very much resembles fans buying BTS concert tickets or baseball fans competitively clicking on the online ticketing website for the Korean Series.

In many cases, due to the surge in traffic, the online admissions website crashes.

A woman, wishing to be identified as Bae, said she barely got in to attend an admissions presentation at a private kindergarten in Jongno, Seoul.

Despite clicking ferociously, she couldn't access the online admissions page as the website crashed. She then called up the kindergarten to explain her situation, and was luckily given an opportunity to attend.

“It has become more competitive as one kindergarten nearby recently closed down,” Bae said.

Starting this month, 8,500 kindergartens nationwide will open or have already opened their admissions for the 2024 academic year.

Priority admissions, or benefits given to applicants from low-income households, veteran families and families with multiple children, closed on Nov. 8. General admissions will start on Wednesday.

An integrated online admissions service, “Go First School” was introduced in Oct. 2018 for the 2019 academic year. This meant parents of young kids no longer had to physically wait in a long line outside the kindergarten to secure their spots.

An official at the Gangwon State Office of Education looks at the application status on “Go First School” in Chuncheon, Gangwon in December, 2018. The service was initiated in October 2018 for the 2019 academic year. [YONHAP]

Still, parents are disgruntled. They complain about the paradoxical situation where, in a country with the lowest birth rates, parents have to compete to get their child into preschool.

“Double-income parents can attend the info session only if one of them takes a day off work. Most of the sessions take place on weekdays. There is limited information available about the sessions as well, meaning parents are on their own searching for answers,” a parent of three-year-old twins in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, surnamed Kim, said.

Although Kim applied through the priority twin admissions track, her twins failed to get into the kindergarten that Kim wanted.

“This is the reality of our country. They push you to have children without providing an environment kind to parents. They have to jump through hoops just to get their children enrolled in kindergartens.”

This complication comes from complex societal factors. Long story short, thousands of kindergartens closed their businesses because of declining birth rates. Newly opened kindergartens are very limited in number. As fewer babies are born, the smaller their market size becomes.

Since 2018, more than 2,300 kindergartens nationwide have gone out of business and only 601 new kindergartens have opened.

The closing down of kindergartens means that there are fewer available options, and so parents have zoned in on a handful of remaining kindergartens. This naturally increases the competition.

General admission results via the online service “Go First School” reads that the applicant got waitlisted from the first, second and third-choice kindergartens. The first and second choices were for private kindergartens in Seoul and the waitlist numbers were 195 and 185, respectively. The last choice was for a public kindergarten in Hanam, Gyeonggi with a waitlist number 52. [SCREENCAPTURE]

In the greater Seoul area, excessive herd behavior aggravates the competition.

Unlike the assignment system for elementary schools which is based on the distance between an applicant's residential address and the school, parents of preschoolers can pick and choose the institution according to their preferences. Obviously, parents want their children to receive a quality education and, if possible, at a reasonable cost.

“Considering the number of operating kindergartens and their available occupancy, nearly all children can be accommodated. However, certain kindergartens are preferred over others. This makes parents feel that admissions have become overheated and super competitive,” said an official from the Ministry of Education.

Several public kindergartens attached to elementary schools were reported to have shortfalls, leading to the suspension of service or a shutdown,” said an official from Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.

Kindergartens are categorized based on the entity in charge of operation.

Private kindergartens with outstanding reputations and stand-alone public kindergartens with cheaper tuition are the most in demand. On the contrary, public kindergartens annexed to elementary schools are the least favored because they have the same vacations as the school.

A child and his parents walk into the country’s first government-acquired institution, Guam kindergarten, in Gwanak District, Seoul on March 8, 2019. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education purchased a private kindergarten at 5.9 billion won ($4.5 million) and reopened it as a stand-alone public kindergarten. [NEWS1]

In Seoul, there are only 47 stand-alone public kindergartens. There are no new openings scheduled for this year or the next.

“To open a new public preschool, the financial cost of securing the land is burdensome. At the same time, complaints coming from nearby kindergartens complicates the problem,” an official from the ministry said.

“Neighboring kindergartens usually raise their guard and react sensitively because a new public kindergarten could take away their incumbent students.”

When it comes to entering a private kindergarten, qualifications and criteria are not unified, meaning that each institution uses different assessment standards.

“I got confused about admissions qualifications after attending five to six info sessions. While one kindergarten prefers children who have siblings already attending its institution or children from multi-kid families, others are more open to kids living in proximity. Some kindergartens said they could guarantee my child’s admission if I apply on the spot,” said a parent of a 3-year-old child in Seongbuk District in northern Seoul, wishing to be identified by her family name Kim.

With the continuing inflation, kindergarten tuition has also been rising. The Ministry of Education set a cap, limiting the fee to a 3.8 percent increase from this year's tuition. The 3.8 percent comes from the consumer price index average from the last three years.

According to the kindergarten industry, most institutions set the monthly tuition at between 600,000 won ($455) and 800,000 won. Kindergarten tuition is usually double the price of a nursery.

Industry experts are calling for a comprehensive and steadfast support system aimed at opening new kindergartens and improving the classroom conditions of existing ones.

They say that quality education can alleviate the extreme competition.

“The history of Korean private kindergartens dates back 120 years. So there's a foundation of educational knowledge and experience, but quite a lot of facilities are outdated and aged. Also, public kindergartens attached to elementary schools have obsolete facilities and classrooms because they opened at the same time as the schools,” Park Chang-hyun, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education said.

“[The government] should fund the renovation and upgrade the facilities, utilizing all means possible.”

About 40 percent of nationwide kindergartens are privately owned. Their status as a private enterprise poses a barrier to funding. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education introduced a “public-style private kindergarten” policy to financially support private institutions that are on the same level as their public counterparts in 2017. However, as of November 2023, only four kindergartens have received the benefit.

“To receive the funding, private kindergartens must agree that their buildings and related properties will belong to the country once they close the business. Due to the strict criteria, private institutions have been reluctant toward this policy,” said an official from Seoul’s education office.

“[The ministry] has requested for the National Assembly to increase the tuition support for children, however, the future doesn't look rosy because of the tight budget review,” an official from the ministry said.

The current tuition support for public kindergarten students is 150,000 won per month, comprised of 100,000 won for regular tuition fees and 50,000 won for after-school activities. For private kindergartens and nurseries, the government provides 350,000 won per month, made up of 280,000 won for regular tuition fees and 70,000 won for after-school activities.

In October, the ministry revealed that it is pushing to increase the subsidy up to 200,000 won for public kindergartens and 400,000 won for private kindergartens and nurseries.

BY CHOI MIM-JI, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]