2015 유아교육정책의 성과와 과제

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to collect overall information on and to assess the outcome of early childhood education in 2014, and to set future tasks for early childhood education policy by analyzing related issues that require in-depth analysis. In conducting the research we analyzed annual education statistics reports by the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI), early childhood education annual reports, internal reports from Ministry of Education, reports by municipal and provincial offices of education as well as other related documents. In addition via interviewing child-abuse specialists, kindergarten staff (principal, teacher, etc) and parents, we investigated the status and perception of child abuse taking place at child care institutions. We also conducted a survey among kindergarten staff and parents on the state and their perception of child abuse. Furthermore, we held advisory conferences comprised of professionals and academics working in the field of early childhood education to receive advice on research directions, survey contents and questions as well as policy suggestions. Numerous meetings on data collection on early childhood education and research collaboration were held. Major findings of this study are as follows. First, according to the overall current status analysis of 2014 early childhood education, the number of kindergartens, the number of classes and kindergarten attendance rate have increased compared to the previous year. In particular, the attendance rate for 5-year-old children, 60.0%, showed the greatest increase among age groups with a 3.6% increase. Nevertheless, the number of children enrolled in kindergartens was 652,546, a 5,642 decrease compared to 2013. The number of kindergarten staff at public kindergartens was 11,931 while the number of staff at private kindergartens was 36,599, 3.1 times greater than the former. The percentage of children enrolled at public kindergartens increased 0.6% to 10.7% compared to 2013. Furthermore, children per kindergarten staff ratio continued to show a decrease becoming closer to the OECD average. As reported by the early childhood education financial indicators, 0.291% of GDP was spent on early childhood education in 2014, a continuous upward trend since 2010 when it was 0.127%, and 8.7% of total expenditure on education was spent on early childhood education which more than doubled 3.5% in 2010. The amount of government funding for kindergarten tuition of 3 to 5 year old children was 143 billion won, and the ratio of total enrolled children to children receiving funding was 101.8%. 97.2% of kindergartens were reported to be providing after-school programs, and 67.5% of enrolled children participated in such programs, a rise compared to 2013. In 2014, the first year evaluation of the third kindergarten evaluation which included 2,635 kindergartens (29.9% of all kindergartens) was completed. The number of early childhood education collaborative networks which showed a decreasing trend until 2011 started to increase since 2012. There was also a steady increase in the number of early childhood education and development institutes with a total number of 14 in 2014. In addition there are 14 institutes for experience education as of 2014. Second, according to our review of early childhood education projects of 17 municipal and provincial offices of education, there was a great discrepancy in budget among the different regional offices. In addition, among the 17 offices, there were offices for which government funding in 2015 increased or decreased compared to 2014 as well as offices that did not receive any funding at all. Third, this study reviewed the concept of child abuse, relevant policy and current state of child abuse through in-depth analysis and researched, compared and analyzed the perception of general types of child abuse and child abuse treatments among kindergarten staff and parents of young children. Based on the findings, this study suggested numerous future directions and tasks for early childhood education policy including the expansion of public infrastructure for early childhood education, securing and efficient allocation of funding for early childhood education, offering better compensation and working conditions for kindergarten staff, stable establishment of a quality management system, and expansion of and strengthening the role of early childhood education support systems. Furthermore, this study discussed and suggested policies to prevent child abuse at the central, regional and kindergarten level.