2012 보육정책의 성과와 과제

Abstract

The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of childcare policy being promoted through the Ai Sarang Plan during the period of 2009~2012 and to make suggestions as to future medium/long-term childcare policy. Additionally, in the interests of conducting an in-depth review of the major projects of the government, 3 initiatives including child nurturing allowance, a pilot project of the dualization of using-time and fee of childcare centers, and the operation of an accreditation system for childcare centers during 2010~2012 were studied in detail. Owing to the promotion of the Ai Sarang Plan over the past 4 years, childcare service has achieved a positive outcome, both quantitatively and qualitatively. In particular, as a result of the strengthened policy of moderating the burden of childcare on parents, the total childcare project budget was expanded to ￦7.1Trillion, including the central government’s total budget of ￦6.13Trillion, and the local government’s budget for special projects, which accounts for 16.2% of the central government's budget. However, such issues as the installation of too few public childcare centers, a lack of quality control within private childcare centers, insufficient facilities for the use of parents and their children and the need for the improvement of the working environment for childcare teachers and the enhancement of their expertise were all issues that need to be addressed in the undertaking of future tasks. The study proposes that the first future task should be to address the present insufficiency of the child nurturing allowance as reported by the majority of parents of children aged 0~2 years old on the threshold of poverty, who stated that ￦300,0000 would be a more reasonable figure. A relatively large number of non-beneficiaries of the current nurturing allowance and users of childcare centers also replied that they would take care of their children at home without using childcare centers any longer if the child nurturing allowance were to be expanded. If childcare subsidies are increased, children from low-income families may be deprived of the opportunity to enroll in childcare centers, thus careful consideration is required when adjusting the relevant policy. As a second broad-gauge task, the outcome of a five-month pilot project involving the diversification of time-use at childcare centers located in Namdong-gu, Incheon was assessed. This task was a meaningful mission whose goal was to enhance the rationality of a system by changing the existing uniform structure in such a way that the regular childcare center’s course was divided into two types: the 'whole-day type' and the 'shortened type', parents being allowed to choose whichever they preferred. As a result of the pilot project, the operational burden of the operator was reduced due to the reduced number of children being left at the center until midnight, and the satisfaction of teachers as regards their working environment was increased due to the reduced childcare burden. However, due to the inherent limitations of the pilot project’s design, it is hard to validate its effectiveness. As a result of feedback from the relevant childcare personnel in relation to the operation of the second year of the accreditation system for childcare centers, issues concerning the necessity of diversification of the accreditation period, intensified follow-up, disclosure of accreditation scores, and the instances of sudden conversion to a visit system at the time of site inspections were raised by participants. It was revealed that in relation to the majority of concerns, site observers tended to prefer a general strengthening of the existing accreditation system to an evaluation by committee members. On the other hand, the responses of evaluation committee members reflected diversified opinions case by case, as well as considerable understanding of the operations of their particular site.