보육의 질 제고를 위한 보육비 산출 연구

Abstract

The present study targets to calculate the optimal costs for each item of childcare by examining every constituents in terms of the improvement measures on the current childcare policies, and consequently estimate the full-day childcare cost per child. To calculate the childcare cost, each item was calculated either normatively, phenomenally or by both methods, utilizing every accessible data. Personnel expenses, costs of ingredients for meals and snacks, educational material expenses and facility maintenance expenses were calculated normatively, while expenses for duty execution and management operation were based on the financial accounting. Personnel expenses include the basic salary along with general bonuses (cost for improvement of treatment and labor conditions), severance pay, the accumulated fund for retirement and costs for social insurance. Management operational costs constitute of travel expenses, miscellany, commission charges, public utility charges, transportational costs, cost of gas and duty executional expenses. Costs of meal and snack ingredients and educational materials include the normative criteria, while facility expenses include costs for installment and maintenance. When estimating the childcare cost the age of the child and the teacher-child ratio were considered in the calculation. The size of the childcare centers were categorized as accomodating 20 persons, 50 persons, 77 persons, 97 persons, 124 persons, or 156 persons, which is a slightly different criterion from that of financial accountings. Two types of childcare cost scheme were proposed. On personnel expenses there is a difference in the the pay level, positional arrangements and teacher bonuses between the two types. The arrangements of non-homeroom teachers and assistances were also different. In the second type an additional 200,000 won/month teacher bonus was inclused. Expenses on the ingredients for meals and snacks were calculated on the basis of an average menu and a premium menu. The costs for teaching materials were differentiated by the amount of stock, while the depreciation cost was differentiated by either the standard unit cost of the construction of public childcare centers or that of public offices, only applying to large scale childcare centers. The same applies for maintenance and management costs. The calculations yielded 877,824 won for 0 year-olds, 611,394won for 1, 488,817won for 2, 373,001won for 3, and 332,419won for 4 and 5 year olds according to the type 1 scheme. The type 2 scheme yielded 964,509won for 0 year-olds, 686,692won for 1, 555,863won for 2, 434,307won for 3 year-olds and approximately 400,000won for 4-5 year-olds. Future tasks for policy makers are the amendment of the INFANT CARE ACT, reestablishment of the criterion for classification of categories via in-depth researches, reformation of the items of financial accountings utilized in phenomenal approaches, the distinction among the standard childcare cost, childcare costs, and the unit cost of governmental subsidies, the calculation of diverse types of care (care for disabled children, extended care, 24-hour care, weekend care, after-school care, temporary care, shortened/half-day care, etc), and the reexamination of the cost of beneficiary payed extracurricular activities, transportation costs, etc.