영유아 교육·보육비용 추정 연구(Ⅲ)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to create basic statistical data by investigating young children's early childhood education and childcare expenses and to propose an improvement plan based on the survey results of young children's education and childcare expenses and on the opinion poll results on financial support policy. This study investigated young children's education and childcare expenses of 2,499 families from total of 16 cities and provinces except Jeju island to estimate the cost per child and per family according to age group, and to analyze the determinants of education and childcare expenditures. The education and childcare survey included questions related to general characteristic of each family’s children and provided detailed analysis across segments such as cost of education(kindergarten), cost of childcare, and parenting payment(including half-day programs). Specifically, costs of education were segmented into cost of kindergarten, after school programs, specialized activities, and morning to night care. Costs of childcare were segmented into costs of childcare center, extra-curricular activities, and time-extended childcare. The necessary expenses for half-day program were included when analysing the parenting payment (including half-day programs) recipients. In addition, we examined the costs spent on individual care, part-time institutions, home-school materials, culture center, and individual or group tutoring sessions. The total expenses of education and childcare for young children aged 0-5 are estimated to be 3,875,600,000,000 won, and the determinants of expenditure are influenced by the size of the region, parent’s working status, family income, and the number of children. Also the estimate cost using average monthly private education is expected to be 1,2192,000,000,000 won, and the estimate cost using annualized coefficient is expected to be 1,779,000,000,000 won. The determinants of private education were the types of government-support, age of young children and family income. Other than expense surveys, parent opinion polls related to education and childcare showed that there is a high agreement on setting price ceilings on extracurricular activities, and also showed relatively high levels of agreement that government financial support has contributed to reducing the cost of education and childcare. However, increase in parenting payment did not increase with stay-at-home parenting intention. Based on the survey result, we discussed the ways to alleviate the financial burden caused by young children's education and childcare expenses and to foster efficiency of government's financial support policy. These are the followings: first, necessity of supervisory organization's management after setting price ceilings on child education organization; second, enhancement of the effectiveness of previously proposed policy such as childcare leave system and flexible work arrangements, and consistant development of child support policy tailored to each family; third, necessity of introducing investigation system for cost of young children's education and childcare at national level. Especially, policy studies are needed to look into the definition of 'private education'.