초등학교 취학연령 및 유아교육 체제 개편 연구

Abstract

On November 25th 2009, the Presidential Council for Future & Vision proposed lowering the age of primary school admission from six to five in order to tackle the failing birth rate. They argued that by lowering the school entry age, childrearing expenses can be reduced as children will start their compulsory education and enter the workforce at an earlier age. This research aims to examine the validity of such arguments.

In the first part of the research, we examined the effects of lowering the school entry age on private education expenses, female workforce participation rates, and workforce entry ages, and the ultimately of this on the birth rate. With regards to the private education expenses, it is unlikely that the burden for parents will be reduced, since lowering the school entry age would only encourage children to take on private tutoring at an earlier age. The female workforce participation rate can be increased only when changes to the school entry age are accompanied by an expansion in and qualitative improvement of the nationwide childcare service. Moreover, considering the recent trend of high youth unemployment, it is difficult to expect that the workforce entry age will be lowered. In sum, we concluded that the positive effects of starting compulsory education at age five on all of the variables mentioned above are uncertain at best.

In the second part of the research, we compared the pros and cons and analyzed the funding needed for such changes in the following three possible scenarios: 1) maintaining the current school entry age; 2) lowering the school entry age to five by accepting children aged five to primary school; and 3) implementing a K-grade for children aged five in kindergarten and childcare centers.

Out of these three scenarios, implementing a K-grade was evaluated to be the most realistic and effective measure, which can standardize the education for children aged five and improve the quality of teaching staff in kindergartens and childcare centers. The implementation of a K-grade allows minimum change in the administrative systems of kindergartens and childcare centers and helps to reduce the financial burden of education upon parents through access to relevant government subsidies.