Education Ministry to launch pilot program for integrated kindergartens and nurseries

The Ministry of Education said on Tuesday that it will launch a pilot program for integrated children and toddler education starting in September at 152 child care institutions nationwide. A 12-hour-long child care will be available on weekdays.

Children who completed the education curriculum at a kindergarten affiliated with the Geumjeong District Office in Busan hold flower bouquets and pose for a photograph at their graduation ceremony in the city in February. [NEWS1]

The Ministry of Education said on Tuesday that it will launch a pilot program for integrated children and toddler education starting in September at 152 child care institutions nationwide.

A total of 68 kindergartens and 84 children’s nurseries will provide 12-hour-long care on weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., a four-hour extension from regular operating hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The pilot program aims to identify loopholes to fill before a full-scale merging of kindergarten and day care operations in 2026.

The government’s drive to merge them aims to ensure unified and comprehensive quality education by streamlining the operations of kindergartens and day cares and putting them entirely under Education Ministry's supervision. The current structure involving two ministries has been blamed for incoherent policies.

To make education more universal, four kindergartens with a separate class for disabled children and 17 nurseries admitting such children are expected to participate in the pilot program.

The services are expected to begin on either Sep. 1 or Sep. 9 and run through next February. A 26.2 billion won ($19 million) grant fund will be spent, and each education office is likely to receive around 1.5 billion won for the six-month trial.

Seventeen education offices nationwide screened applications from local preschools and nurseries until early August and submitted the list of successful candidates for the pilot program to the Education Ministry.

The Education Ministry said it ordered the local offices to pick at least three kindergartens and three nurseries to explore the best-suited child care policies at different institutions.

The ministry aims to enhance the “quality of interaction between children and instructors” by allowing each teacher to manage and focus on fewer students. During the pilot period, it will support and aid in hiring additional teachers if the teacher-to-student ratio exceeds 1:2, 1:13, 1:15 and 1:18 at classes for 0-year-old, 3-year-old, 4-year-old and 5-year-old children, respectively.

The ministry plans to expand research and training opportunities where instructors could develop their child care and education competencies. It also hopes to gain insight into crafting a name for the newly merged institutions that encompasses "the essence of combining kindergartens and day cares and the country's low birthrate."

Children smile while making Kimchi at their day care center in Gwangju last December. [YONHAP]

Yet, the pilot program faces legal barriers as current legal provisions differentiate children who enter nurseries and kindergartens according to age.

An Education Ministry official told the Korea JoongAng Daily that “the pilot program should be carried out under the current legal structure.”

The current Early Childhood Education Act stipulates that children aged three years or older and younger than the admission age for elementary school can enroll in kindergartens. Thus, only children in the age bracket can join the pilot program for kindergartens.

The official said, “Children aged between zero and two are eligible to participate in the pilot program only in day care facilities as legal revisions have not taken place.”

“Although infant and toddlers’ admission to kindergarten could be possible in the following phases of the pilot program after next February when the legal revision is completed before the full-scale merger in 2026, the details and schedule have not been decided nor specified,” the official said.

The education community is uncertain of the effectiveness of the pilot program.

“Child care service for 12 hours and improving educational qualities at such centers are separate agenda from the key idea of integrating kindergartens and day cares,” Park Chang-hyeon, researcher from the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education, told the JoongAng Ilbo. Park pointed out that newly announced measures are "insufficient to show how the merger would be realized in actual classrooms."

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