The 6 th OECD ECEC Network Meeting December

The 6 th OECD ECEC Network Meeting December 7 -8 th, 2009 Integrating Early Childhood Education and Care in the Republic of Korea Mugyeong Moon Korea Institute of Child Care and Education

Facts and Statistics Population : 48 million, Fertility rate : 1. 19 (2008) GDP per capita : USD 21, 530 (28, 120 PPP) (2008) (IBRD) Children at age 0 to 5 : 2, 744, 597 (2008) 3 months of paid maternity leave (USD 400 per month) & 1 year paid parental leave (USD 500 per month) Duration of compulsory school education : 6 -15 years (6 yrs of elementary & 3 yrs of middle school)

• Unit cost per child in kindergarten (in USD using PPP) : USD 3, 393 (OECD, Education at a Glance, 2009) • Funding of services for children under age 3 : 0. 36% of GDP • Rate of access to regulated services: - Children under 3 yrs, 26%, - Children 3 to 5 yrs, 88. 2% ( kindergarten & childcare) (2008) • 8, 344 kindergartens (537, 822 Children) & 32, 149 childcare (family daycare 46. 3%) (1, 091, 287 children) (2008) • 34, 601 teachers/directors in KGs & 191, 103 in childcare

- ECEC Systems - Split & Dual Parallel System Classification Early Childhood Education Childcare Age of children served 3 to 5 (Kindergartens) 0 to 5 (childcare centers & family daycare) Gov. Auspice Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs (Since Feb, 2008) Early Childhood Education Act Legal base (legislated in Jan. 2004) Childcare Act (Since 1991) Curriculum National Kindergarten Curri. (Since 1976) National Childcare Curriculum (Since 2007) 4 yr, 3 yr, 2 yr college 4 yr, 2 yr college & 1 yr post high school Teacher Training

Motivation for Integration • Increasing similarities of service targets and functions between education and care • Policy incoherence and inefficiency - A need to develop policy alternatives to boost rationality and equity in allocating the ECEC budget • Confusion of families with 3 -5 yr olds due to multiple ECEC institutions • Division of staff working with children, etc. Cooperation and integration of ECEC emerged as the top priority policy task in Korea

Major Stakeholders Care Education • MEST • MW • Associations of kindergartens • Associations of Childcare • Professors and students of Dept. of Early Childhood Education • Professors and students of Dept. of Child Development and Famili Study Integrating 0 to 5 Or 3 to 5 Integrating 0 to 5 Or 0 to 4 * The issue of integration is beyond policies , a matter of politics.

Efforts to Integrate ECEC • Integration of ECEC issued as part of education reform plan developed by Presidential Commission (1993) • A special committee on early childhood edu. Reform under the Prime Minister’s Office (1997 -1999) - Proposed a new integrated ECEC system for children 0 to 5 - a strong resistance of MW & childcare association Legislating Early Childhood Education Act (Jan. 2004) ECEC committee formed for ECEC policy coordination (Dec. 2004) Establishing a national research institute, Korea Institute of Childcare and Education (Dec. 2005)

Research on Integration • Developing models to integrate ECEC (2006) • Facilitating cooperation between kindergartens and childcare centers (2007) Developing measures to integrate ECEC systems (2008) Developing and applying models of cooperation of ECEC (2009 -2011): “Young. Cha Project” - win-win strategy - bottom-up approach & ownership - support & collaboration of local governments - mobilizing community resources - implementing within the current systems - empirical and objective evidence

Free education and care - Increasing public investment in ECEC Designating a superior government body to oversee policy coordination between ministries Integration of ECEC teacher training systems Integration of kindergarten and childcare curricular Integrating quality assurance schems More dialogues among stakeholders 10