녹색성장시대 육아지원기관의 대응방안

Abstract

Recognizing that kindergartens and childcare centers are important arenas to implement green growth policies, this study examines the level of green growth education and green living practices carried out in kindergartens and childcare centers and explores ways in which they can be strengthened. A nation-wide survey on green growth education and practices was conducted, utilizing a total of 1,200 respondents, comprising both directors and teachers from 240 kindergartens and 360 childcare centers.

The results indicated that 79.3% of directors and 90.2% of teachers had almost no training on green growth education, and more than 60% of them had never received official documents regarding green growth policies from the central government.

With the exception of several costly implementations such as "replacing light bulbs with LED type bulbs," it was found that the facilities surveyed have generally adapted energy saving, recycling, and eco-friendly measures to an adequate extent.

Suggested further policy measures for green growth are as follows: 1) including kindergartens and childcare centers as recipients of green-growth related documents issued by the government; 2) encouraging local municipalities to demonstrate a strong determination to implement green growth policies in childcare facilities; 3) developing strategies to provide economical compensation for reducing levels of CO2; 4) modifying environmentally unfriendly assessment criteria in the childcare institution accreditation system; 5) developing programs which integrate green growth education and green living practices; 6) incorporating green-growth education into teacher training curricula; and lastly, 7) using more accurate ECEC institution titles and terms in the Green Growth Act.